A Month Later

Today marked a month since my father's funeral. He died, at age 90, on September 3rd, and he was buried on the 6th at Beth Israel Memorial Garden at Woodlawn on Antoine near I-10.

Today, I went on a long walk, and I visited the mausoleum where his body now rests. The walk started at Houston Congregation for Reform Judaism, and it took me almost an hour to get to the cemetery. The whole walk ended up being about 14 1/2 miles.

After the cemetery, I did what we did a month ago after the funeral, but I walked there instead of driving to Magnol, a bakery that sold me this delicious chocolate eclair:

I then walked to White Oak Bayou. I have walked along this the trail there a few times recently, and I used to ride my bike along it. In fact, the last time I communicated with my father was on his 90th birthday on June 16th, which was also Father's Day. I was walking along the bayou that day and sent him a photo of a bird I saw, a blue heron:

No birds today!

On almost every Sunday, I visit Beth Israel's other cemetery, on West Dallas near my home. After grabbing lunch at Barnaby's on Heights, I walked there and saw JB. My dad was a JB, but this friend of mine is nothing like my dad! His name is John, not Joel, and he is the security guard there. His full-time job is at Harris Health, the company that operates Ben Taub Hospital among other things. I have been getting to know him for more than a year now.

From that cemetery, I stopped at Whole Foods Market on the way home. The entire walk was about 5 1/2 hours, with stops for the eclair ( a quick one), lunch (about 30 minutes) and the visit with John (about 30 minutes too). The rest of the time was walking at about 3 miles per hour.

I have written that I am not going to review here every book that I read or detail all of the walks I take, but today's walk was really cool. To walk from one Beth Israel Cemetery to the other is not something many people (perhaps any people) do. My father is at the one on Antoine, and his parents are at the one on Dallas. I don't believe one needs to visit loved ones at the cemetery, as I can and do visit them in my thoughts.

I am now doing pretty regularly half-marathon length walks. Today's was a little longer, but it wasn't as long as my walk last weekend. I went on a 16 mile walk last week, my longest yet. That walk was to the 5th Ward.

I discussed above a different JB in my life, and I have not yet mentioned another JB that is new to me. He is a Joel! I reached out to him for the first time ever the day after my father died. I had mentioned him, Joel Blumenthal, in the piece I wrote about my father's parents the day after my father died.

I messaged him on Facebook very early on September 4th, trying to connect with him for the first time ever. He accepted my message quickly. We had a nice written chat, and I ended up speaking with him a week later. His parents had always said good things about him to Fran and me, and I was happy to learn but not surprised that they said good things about us to him too. I lost a Joel, but I picked up one!