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| Poppy Mannie, Nanny Ann and two of their great grandaughters, April 2007. |
I read the following words at the funeral of Emanuel Yeskel, known to us as "Poppy Mannie" on Monday, March 21st in Boynton Beach, Florida.
He is the grandfather of my wife and became my grandfather too, in a very real way, as you will gather from my words.
Below I refer to cousin Jamie, and Mannie's wife, Ann.
I would be honored to receive your comments, if you have any.
Thanks, Brian
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I had the great fortune of being adopted into the Yeskel clan by marriage.
When I first traveled with Kimberly as her new boyfriend to meet her family, coming here to Boynton Beach, well this was like a new world for me.
I didn't get to know my birth grandparents.
You see, I'm a first generation American.
While I was growing up, my family was still recovering from the Shoah, the Holocaust, having lived through that just a generation before.
I had no extended family, and lived an assimilated life in Wisconsin.
And here I was coming from a family that hardly claimed our judaism to visit my wife's family in a place where there WERE no Christmas decorations, where everyone eats bagels and lox, and where people use the word 'schlep' in daily conversation.
Somehow I fell into the family I never had (and didn't even realize i had missed). And the patriarch of this family, Poppy, taught me what it was to be a mensch. I had no role models of warm, loving, zestful men in my life.
Mannie loved life, he loved others and, I have to add--he loved himself!
Whenever we'd go out to a restaurant, Poppy would leave as the best of friends not only with the waiter or waitress and the maitre de, but also with the diners at the surrounding tables! I had never seen this before.
I remember calling him to tell him the dates when we'd be coming to visit. We were always welcome. Only he pretended it would put him out a little bit to let the President know that he shouldn't visit the same week we were coming.
Poppy taught me that anything was possible. Starting in the rag business and building a real estate development company, marrying the young woman you met in grammar school, eating spareribs with gusto AND dieting at the same time, and at age 90, still being the hub of a family extending from coast to coast.
We always enjoyed his regular notes, emails and of course, the famous Yeskel family calendar now carried on by Jamie.
Nanny Ann, mazel tov on 67 years of marriage. I got to tell you, you didn't only know how to pick them, you knew how to stick with them.
Uou have set a very high bar, if I meet your standard for 67 years of marriage to Kimberly, I need to live to ah… at least 102!
I feel I need to share this story: One time, several years ago, Kimberly and I hit a tough spot in our marriage. Kimberly and our daughter Lea left our home for a few weeks and came to Florida for a break. It was really a temporary separation during a very stressful time. But in the midst of this difficult time, who should call me but Poppy. I won' t share with you what he said to me, because we both considered it private conversation. But the gist of it, is that he let me know that he believed in me. And that made a big difference for me and always will.
Poppy, I know the president would be here now, except that there would be serious consequences to him interrupting his diplomatic visit to South America. But you and I both know he'd rather be here.
Thanks for giving me something to shoot for.
Farewell Pop, I thank you for being the grandfather I never had.
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