Uri Full of Light

by Holly Sortland

  “Uri,” Avi began. “The reason I wanted to spend time with you tonight is because we need to talk about your future. And Mickey’s future.”

  “She’s only five months old, Abba. I don’t think I need to make any life changing decisions tonight.”

  “No, but time goes fast as a parent. In a blink of an eye Mickey will be starting Hebrew School. And then what will you be doing? HaShem has blessed you with too many gifts for you live in our basement for the rest of your life. And you are still young. If you have a career you will be a much more suitable match for a young woman.”

  “Abba,” Uri said angrily. “My wife has been in the ground for less than six months and you’re talking about match making? I swear on my child’s soul that I will never, ever marry again.”

  Avi sighed. “I apologize, son. Please forgive my lack of thought. I can’t imagine how hard the days must be for you.”

  “No, you can’t,” Uri said. “You’ve been blessed with Imma for most of your life. Imagine if you had her for only a year.”

  “I can’t imagine that, son. I pray for you and Mickey every day.”

  Uri gave his father a slight nod before taking a bite of salad.

  “Uri, I want you to think about applying to medical school,” Avi said. “You are smart, and you have the determination and the skills to make a great doctor.”

  “Abba, I’m not you. And I’m not Gavriel. I don’t know what my path is yet.”

  “Then pray that HaShem will guide you,” Avi responded. “Make sure your heart is open when you pray the Amidah. HaShem will give you wisdom.” He grew quiet as he watched his son eat, thinking to himself that grief had hardened the kind, young man.

  “What do you think Chana would want you to do?” he asked his son.

  Uri paused for a moment. Avi noticed how his son’s eyes lit up when he thought of his late wife.

  “Chana? She was so bright and caring. She encouraged me in many ways, even if she disagreed with what I was doing.” He took a bite of food before continuing. “I think Chana would want me to help people. That was her dream. But I can’t picture myself as a social worker. I’m more of an introvert if you haven’t noticed.”

  “Introverts make great surgeons,” Avi said, smiling.

  “You’re not going to let this go anytime soon, are you?” Uri replied.

  “I will not mention it again, my son. I have a feeling that HaShem will show you the way.”

  “To Chana,” Avi said, picking up his wine glass.

  “To Chana,” Uri repeated as he they clinked glasses.

  “L’chaim,” they said in unison. The two men ate the rest of their meal in silence.

  FOUR DAYS PASSED WHEN Uri received a letter in the mail. It was from the Halachic Organ Donor Society. His heart raced as he tore open the envelope, careful to not damage the letter it contained. The letter read:

  Dear Mr. Geller,

  We are writing to inform you the liver of your deceased wife, Mrs. Chana Geller, was successfully transplanted into a 16-year-old girl who currently resides in Israel. Unfortunately, we cannot provide you more information about the recipient because of confidentiality reasons. We are happy to inform you, however, that the donor recipient is in good health and appears to show no complications of rejection.

  We are incredibly grateful for the gift your wife offered to the recipient...

  Uri read the letter three times. Afterward, he looked at a picture mounted on the wall that he had brought back from Israel; the one that Penina painted, of a father welcomed home by a child. He walked to Mickey’s crib to find her sleeping soundly.

  “Your Imma saved someone’s life,” he softly whispered to his slumbering daughter. “She saved my life, too. One day, I will tell you much more about your brave, beautiful Imma,” he said as he stroked Mickey’s arm.

  He picked up his phone and dialed his father.

  “Abba,” he said after his father picked up. “Tell me more about what I need to do to get into medical school. Specifically, transplant surgery.”

  Uri looked at his daughter as she stirred from her nap. She peered up at her Abba and smiled.

  51

  The following decade brought many changes for the Gellers and the Hagens.

  Mickey grew into a strong-willed child, so much so that when she was five years old, she refused to wear the dresses her Bubbe and Dodah Noa made for her. Uri purchased several packages of leggings, as the child had the habit of rolling her dresses and skirts up into her undergarments. She was hyper and curious, always on the move. Over the years, Uri received many calls from the teachers at her Hebrew School for her uncouth behavior.

  Her hair was a mixture of dark brown with dark blonde highlights, but what surprised the family most were her natural, unruly curls. Getting the child to brush her hair to prevent knots was a daily battle. When she grew out of infancy, her blue eyes turned into a golden hazel in the cunning shape of her mother’s. She was a striking child, and like her mother, her presence lit up a room.

  Mickey spent her summers in South Dakota with Kathleen and Mike. When Mickey turned seven, her grandfather’s lungs began to fail. Because of underlying health conditions, he was not eligible to be put on a transplant list again. But he had seven good summers with his granddaughter, teaching her the history of the Black Hills, and the names and species of various animals. He took her to old Buffalo jumps and taught her to fish in the streams and rivers.

  In the Hagen home hung a picture of Mickey, missing her bottom front teeth, proudly smiling next to her grandfather with a seventeen-inch Rainbow Trout. It was a photo opportunity that her mother never received, but Uri knew that somewhere in the universe Chana reveled in knowing that Mickey fished wild streams with her grandfather.

  Michael Hagen died in 2008. His memorial was held in a funeral home without crosses or relics, and the entire Geller family flew from Philadelphia to pay their respects to Chana’s father.

  Noa Geller gave birth to healthy baby girl that same year. They named the girl Miriam Chana, to honor her late aunt. Micky was delighted with her little cousin.

  Not long after Michael Hagen’s death, Uri graduated from the School of Medicine at Temple University and began his residency in transplant surgery at the Penn Transplant Institute. He became close friends with another resident; a Muslim man named Hekan Ibrahim.

  Two months after Chana’s father’s death, Uri and Hekan worked together on their first heart and double lung transplant. The surgery was a success. Soon after, Hekan’s wife gave birth to a healthy baby girl. On the morning of the child’s birth, Uri received a text message with a picture of the newborn. “Meet our daughter, Amira.”

  When Uri called HeKan to congratulate him, he asked, “What made you choose the name Amira?”

  “You know it’s funny,” HeKan answered. “We were settled on another name, but a couple of nights before she was born, we came across Amira in a book of baby names. It just felt right to us.”

  Uri smiled, knowing that in her own way, Chana sent him a message.

  Uri made special plans on the night after baby Amira was born. He drove Mickey out of the city past the suburbs.

  “Where are we going, Abba?” she asked her father as they drove away from the city lights.

  “Someplace where we can see the stars,” he told her. When they arrived at an empty field, Uri pulled a blanket from the trunk and carried his tired girl to a nice clearing. He spread the blanket on the ground, laid his daughter beside him, and explained to her the mystery and beauty of the universe that her mother told him about many years ago. He told her about the time that he and Chana laid on a beach in Israel, gazing at the same stars that Mickey now admired.

  “All those pretty stars died?” Mickey asked.

  “Yes,” Uri replied. “But their light lives on. Just like your Imma’s light lives on in you and in me, and all the people who knew and loved her. But her light especially lives in you, Mickey.”

  “I wish I could se
e my Imma,” Mickey said, rubbing her tired eyes.

  “Ah, little one, you see her every day when you look in the mirror. You look so much like her.”

  “I love you, Abba,” Michaela said, snuggling into her father’s chest.

  “I love you more, Mickey Ruth.”

  Uri picked up his daughter and covered her with the blanket. Her wild curls swept over her face as he placed her in her booster seat. As she fell asleep in the backseat, he took the long route home.

  52

  Ten years later, seventeen-year-old Mickey Geller sat in the football stand where her mother and father sat over twenty years before. Her Zayde Avi, who retired two years earlier, reluctantly agreed to come out of retirement to return to the Black Hills. Once again, he served an interim position at the regional hospital. Though he moved slower, he was still a skilled and compassionate physician.

  Mickey begged her father to let her go with her Zayde and Bubbe. She yearned to spend more time with her Grandma Kathleen and her Aunt Leah. Most importantly, she wanted to attend the school that her mother attended, even if it was for only one year. Uri agreed, and enlisted Daniel and Faith to help keep an extra eye on her. They had their own daughter, Lily, who was two years younger than Mickey. The girls quickly became close friends.

  On this chilly October game night, Mickey and Lily shared hot chocolate. A group of rowdy boys sat in front of them, cursing and throwing candy wrappers at each other. It was the end of the fourth quarter, and their team was winning by a large margin.

  There was one boy on the football team with Down syndrome. He didn’t get to play often, but when the team was leading in the fourth quarter—as they were this evening—the coach called him in.

  As the boy received the cue from the coach, he made his way onto the field. One of his feet dragged behind him as he jogged. A popular jock in the stand stood on top of a bleacher and imitated the boy’s limp. A group of kids laughed and threw popcorn at him as he continued to cruelly mock the player. Other students pulled out their phones and recorded him.

  Just as Mickey prepared herself to intervene, another boy appeared from behind her, pulling the popular student off the bleacher.

  “You think it’s funny making fun of someone like that?” he asked, giving the kid a slight push in the chest. “It takes a real big man to pick on a kid who’s disabled. Stop being a jerk.”

  A group of people in the stand applauded as they watched the jock sit down, having properly been put in his place.

  “Who is that?” Mickey asked Lily. She eyed the tall young man as he returned to his seat. He had dirty blond hair and wore a plain gray sweatshirt. Mickey thought he looked like the quintessential all-American boy.

  “That guy?” Lily responded. “He’s an upperclassman. Really good at cross country. His name is Eli. I don’t know his last name.”

  Eli, Mickey thought to herself, son of Aaron the high priest.

  The scoreboard buzzed, and the cheerleaders ran onto the field, greeting the players in their victory.

  Mickey looked behind her and saw Eli make his way down the bleachers with a group of boys.

  “Come on, Lily,” she prodded her friend.

  “Why, where are we going?”

  “Just follow me,” Mickey said.

  Mickey and Lily walked quickly to catch up to the group of boys in front of them.

  “Hey Eli!” Mickey shouted, unaware that twenty years earlier, her fiery mother stood in the same parking lot, trying to get the attention of Mickey’s father.

  “Eli!” she hollered again.

  The tall boy turned around, squinting to see who called his name. Mickey ran as fast as she could to catch up to him.

  Caught off guard as a pretty girl with wild, long curls approached him, Eli felt his cheeks flush. The girl wore a long chain over her sweater with a Star of David, along with what appeared to be a wedding ring.

  “Yeah?” he said, startled by the strange girl’s boldness.

  “I just wanted to tell you that what you did tonight was really nice. You know, how you stood up to that guy. It took some guts to do that,” Mickey said as she looked into the boy’s bright blue eyes.

  “Yeah, well, someone has to do the right thing, right?”

  “Right,” Mickey responded with a grin. Eli noticed that she had a slight gap in her front two teeth when she smiled.

  “By the way, I’m Mickey. This is Lily,” she said.

  “Nice to meet you,” he said, still taken aback by the sudden appearance of this extroverted, unusual girl.

  “What you did tonight was a mitzvah. HaShem will reward you,” Micky said, still grinning.

  Eli looked inquisitively at Mickey.

  “A what? And who will reward me?” He smiled curiously.

  A car pulled up and honked. It was Grandma Kathleen, there to pick up the girls.

  “I will tell you someday when we have more time,” said Mickey, casting away any doubt that the two would meet again. “It was nice to meet you, Eli.”

  Before she got into the car, Eli hollered back to her.

  “Hey Mickey, how did you know my name?”

  “Because it’s a nice Jewish boy’s name!” she yelled back.

  As the parking lot cleared, Eli walked to his car. He had a funny feeling about this new girl—but it was a good feeling. As he unlocked his door, he heard one of his classmates call out to him from a passing vehicle.

  “Hey Moorehouse, good job tonight!”

  Eli gave him a passing wave as he got into his car. He took out his phone and pulled up his Instagram account. He typed the word “Mickey” into the search bar. Her picture popped up on his screen. He clicked on her image. The name “Mickey Geller” was listed under her profile, along with words written in a language he didn’t recognize.

  The pretty girl with the gapped-tooth smile and wild curls stared up at him from his phone. He noticed a recent photo she posted of a young couple in a hospital bed posing with a newborn baby. The photo looked grainy and dated. He read the image caption, Happy Birthday, Imma! I miss you every day. #Immasgirl

  Eli put his phone away and started his engine. As the car warmed up, he wondered more about Mickey Geller, the puzzling girl with wild hair who knew his name.

  Checking his rearview mirror, Eli Moorehouse pulled out of the parking lot, unaware of the story that began there decades ago.

  Though it was chilly, he let down his sunroof. The brightness of the moon and stars guided him home.

  Glossary of Hebrew/Yiddish Terms

  Abba-an Aramaic term for “father” adapted into the Hebrew language

  Aliyah- known as the “act of going up.” Also, moving to Israel, a basic tenant of Zionism

  Amidah- a central prayer of Jewish liturgy found in the siddur

  Ahuv- a Hebrew term of endearment meaning “beloved”

  Aufruf- a Yiddish term that means to “call up.” During the Shabbat preceding their wedding, a couple is called up before the congregation to read a portion of the Torah. Candy is often thrown afterwards to wish the couple a life of sweetness.

  Bar Mitzvah-a religious ceremony of a Jewish boy who has reached the age of 13

  Baruch HaShem- a Hebrew term meaning “Thank God”

  Beit Din-a group of Jewish men (or Hebrew court) knowledgeable in Jewish law who make decisions on issues such as marriage, conversion, and divorce

  Berachot- blessings in Jewish prayer

  Boker Tov- a Hebrew term meaning “good morning,” or “good day” (used before midday)

  B’shert-a Yiddish term meaning “meant to be” (often used regarding a soulmate)

  Bubbe- Yiddish word for “grandmother”

  Challah-a special bread of Jewish cuisine; usually braided and eaten on Shabbat and ceremonial occasions

  Chanukah- (also spelled Hanukkah) a Jewish holiday celebrating the commemorating of the Temple in 165 BC by the Maccabees after its destruction by the Syrians.

  Chumash- the Torah in printed form


  Conservative Judaism-a denomination of Judaism that seeks to preserve Jewish tradition and law but has a more flexible approach to Jewish law

  Dodah- Hebrew word for “aunt”

  Ger-a convert to Judaism

  Goy-a Jewish name for a non-Jew

  HaShem- literally interpreted as “the name”- a Hebrew term used to refer to God

  Havdalah-A Jewish religious ceremony or formal prayer marking the end of the Sabbath

  Imma- an Aramaic term for “mother” adopted

  in the Hebrew language

  Intifada- the Palestinian uprising against Israel

  Joppa-also known as Jaffa, the oldest and most southern point of Tel Aviv

  Ketubah- a symbolic Jewish marriage contract that outlines the groom’s responsibilities to his wife. It is read during the wedding ceremony and signed by two witnesses.

  Kiddushin- Hebrew for the betrothal that often takes place immediately before a Jewish marriage

  Kippah-also known as a yarmulke; a brimless cap, usually made of cloth and traditionally worn by Jewish males to fulfill the customary requirement that the head be covered.

  Kosher-the state of satisfying the requirements of Jewish law

  Kriah- a Hebrew word meaning “tearing,” often done as an expression of grief

  Kugel-a baked pudding or casserole commonly made from egg noodles or potatoes

  Law of Return-an Israeli law passed on July 5, 1950, giving Jews the right to live and gain citizenship in Israel

  Mezuzah-a piece of parchment contained in a decorative case inscribed with verses from the Torah; it is affixed to the doorposts of Jewish homes to fulfill the mitzvah “to write the words of G-d on the gates and doorposts of your house.” (Deuteronomy 6:9)