WLM

Golda and David Cohen, with Rebecca and Adam
Eulogies

Golda’s eulogy

(SHOW FIST)
A hand – just like this – could provide so much entertainment.  How, you ask? Dad loved kids.  He would keep his fist squeezed tight and the kid next to him would try as hard as possible to open his hand.  Once it was open, the kid’s next task was to close it.  One, two fingers would be closed, then the third, then boing! One of the closed fingers would spring open.  This was shul entertainment and it would keep any kid quiet during the service.  Going to shul every Shabbat was a way of life growing up and I kept that up with my own kids when they were little.  This kept them sitting still for such a long period of time.

Dad was all about bringing a smile to someone’s face any way he could.  Eventually, he came up with a routine.  Some were for young children.  Any place we would be, the whole world stopped when he saw a little kid.  Out came the clown nose, out came his faces until he made the child smile.  Some were for old children, otherwise known as grown-ups.  He kept a stack of million dollar bills in his calendar book to give away.  He kept a stack of his “un-business” business cards – his ticket that was good for nothing.

The final line of his routine: Remember, whatever goes wrong is my fault.  We are gathered here today to remember and honor Dad and he’s right.  This is his fault.  I love him and Mom so much. They have taught me so much and made me who I am today.

David’s eulogy

I have a story I’d like to tell that I think says a lot about him. I promise it won’t take too long, but I think it’s very fitting. With the blessing of Golda and her brothers I can relate it to you.

After Golda's mom passed away, Bill came to me and asked me to help him get his finances organized. He kind of threw everything on to me and said “Here, you take care of it” – he didn’t want to deal with it. One of the things we ran across was a letter that said there was a stock certificate. So I asked him “Do you have the stock certificate? Have you seen it before?” He had no idea. So I said, “OK, I need to go out and get an affidavit of a lost stock certificate and get it signed and then and go file it to get you a duplicate copy, if there actually is one around.”

So I decide to go over on a Thursday morning. He was having a coffee in the dining room on North Forest. I sat down with him and he was finishing up and then moved everything out of the way to make room for the forms so he could sign them. And I looked down at his coffee. He had just moved the coffee and there down below it was a nice placemat he was using. And I said, “What is that?” and he said “Well, that’s my coffee placemat – that’s what I use so I don’t spill coffee on the table.” I said, “Do you see what it says scrawled across the top of it?” He says “Nooo.”l said, “It says ‘Sun Life of Canada’. That’s the stock certificate we’re looking for!” He had been using this stock certificate as his coffee mat! For months, years, who knows? It had rings everywhere.

And I said, “I’m gonna kinda need to take that.”

He looked at me, seriously, and said, “What am I going to use for a placemat?”

That really epitomizes him. Simple and selfless and, y’know, that’s a rare breed these days. I see it in his kids, my brothers-in-law and my kids. It’s kind of a neat thing that he’ll live on that way.

Rebecca & Adam’s eulogy

Adam:
A fond memory we have is Saturday mornings growing up. Every Saturday, Mom took us to Schul at BSKI and we went over to his house for lunch afterwards. Lunch ALWAYS included fruit salad, so it’s become impossible to eat fruit salad without thinking of him. For some reason it was just unnaturally sweet. At home we would try to replicate it. We’d always try to imitate it – we’d add the same amount of bananas, the same amount of kiwi and everything – and … there’s just gotta be something else.  So then we tried sugar.  So there we were, dumping spoonful upon spoonful of sugar on to the fruit salad. And then mom would come over and yell at us for pouring sugar – large amounts of sugar – on the fruit. But it was never quite right. I don’t know what it was, but his fruit salad was, and always will be, superior to any other fruit salad.

Rebecca:
I want to thank Zayde for giving me the most amazing gift ever: my first trip to Israel. In June of 2013, Zayde went to Israel for the last time. Since he was unable to go alone, he asked me to accompany him there. I had never been to Israel before and I am still honored that his last trip doubled as my first trip. Whenever I think of Israel I think of him. I have priceless memories and pictures from our adventure that I know I’ll carry for the rest of my life.

Adam:
Finally, the biggest impact Zayde had on our lives was our love for the theatre. Every summer, for as long as we can remember, probably going back even further, he would get seasons tickets to the Muny for Rebecca, Mom, him, and me.

Rebecca:
We looked forward to these shows year round because those Thursday nights at the Muny were the epitome of summer for us, and this summer at the Muny will not be the same without him there.