Eternal Light Funeral Chapel

. Janet «Noonie» Kahn
1926 – 2008
I came down from New York for Thanksgiving to visit my grandmother «Noonie», who had been ailing with lung cancer. My wife Ting came down a week before me to help her out. My trip was supposed to last for one week, but four weeks later I’m now just leaving tomorrow. This trip was just to visit her for Thanksgiving and to get her better home care. The doctors thought that she would live well into the new year.
A day after I arrived I could see that she was a lot worse than they thought. Her pain was becoming unbearable. She was also becoming confused. Until now at 82 she was sharp as a tack.
We started in-​home hospice care. Within two days she stopped talking, communicating, eating or drinking and eight days later she died. She had a moment of clarity two days before and the last words I heard her say were «I love you Michael».
She was more than a grandmother or a mother to me. She was the one person, no matter the issue, bantam or prodigious, who stood by me always. A person that whether I was right or wrong was on my side, a person that loved me always, even when I was unable to do it for myself. A person that never gave up on me and made sure that I had everything that I needed, the things that they didn’t have growing-​up, even when it meant that they sacrificed for themselves. She was a savior, a guardian angel and the «Giving Tree» in a five foot two body, and it breaks my heart to say goodbye.
My Noonie was very practical and she prepaid her funeral at Eternal Light Funeral Chapel. The people that work there are wonderful. Their space is very comfortable and warm. They found a really lovely rabbi who gave a very special service. He himself must have been in his 80’s. When I spoke at the funeral he listened and then spoke from what I said. If I take one thing away from what he said it was that «she gave well». She did.
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