When Dan and I were seriously dating, back in 1991, he took me to his parents’ house. I had met them years before under different circumstances, but now was my chance to really get to know them. Dan’s mother showed me some family photos from long ago; she also brought out Dan’s baby book. Among the interesting tidbits in that book was the reason she and her husband had named their son Daniel – after Daniel in the Tanach, the famed hero who survived his ordeal in the lions’ den.
Dan and I didn’t have children together during our 29-year marriage, but he and my kids became quite close. My first grandchild, Yitzi,* was born while we were still dating. Soon afterwards, we got engaged, and the following year we married. Over the years we would visit my family, and Dan got to know all of my children and grandchildren. When my relationship with one adult child frayed, Dan would still communicate with that child.
I was already a great-grandmother by the time Dan passed away. Yitzi had married and had begun raising his own family, and one by one, so did each of his siblings.
Because these were the children of the adult child who had stopped communicating with me (but had not stopped communicating with others in the family), news sometimes took a while to get to me from that branch of the family, and unfortunately I missed many simchas. But I tried as best I could to keep in touch with all the grandchildren, who were scattered all over the world.
One of my sons, Shlomo,* and his wife had hosted his niece Shoshi,* Yitzi’s youngest sister, and her husband several times until Shoshi and her husband moved away, nearer to where Yitzi lives with his wife and family. Shlomo and Shoshi stayed in touch after the move. I knew Shoshi was expecting her first child but I wasn’t sure of the timetable. Before she was married, she had visited my house a few times, the last time being for a gala celebration that Dan and I hosted for our 25th wedding anniversary.
My mother-in-law had passed away on Hoshana Rabba 5764. Decades before that, my maternal grandmother also passed away on Hoshana Rabba. So, this year on Hoshana Rabba, I went to shul, and the Rabbi said special memorial prayers (Hashkavot) for both. I spent a couple of hours in shul, then went home to get ready for Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah.
That afternoon, my son Shlomo called me, as he often does on erev Shabbat or erev Yom Tov. We chatted about a few things, and then the following conversation took place, which afterwards brought to my mind the gradual way Hashem had asked Avraham Avinu to perform the Akeidah. Shlomo asked me, “By the way, you heard that Shoshi had the baby, right?” I said, “No, I hadn’t known. When?” He said, “On erev Sukkot” – one week before. I asked, “What did she have – a boy or a girl?” He replied, “A boy.” So I said, “Oh, then the bris was today, right?” He said, “Right.” I asked, “So what did they name him?”
They named him Daniel!
Shlomo explained that they had named him after Daniel in the Tanach. Later on, I was able to get hold of my granddaughter Shoshi and wish her mazal tov. I asked her about the baby’s name, and she said, yes, they had named him after Daniel in the Tanach, but they had also thought of my late husband Dan when naming him. She sent me several photos and videos from the bris. I was overcome with emotion as I watched the segment where the baby received his name.
And the generations move forward, and now Dan has a little namesake of sorts! I’m sure he is smiling up in Shamayim at that honor. Strictly speaking, both were named after the Daniel in the Tanach, but still, this new Daniel is Dan’s little namesake. “Zeh yinahamenu” – “This one shall comfort us” (or me), as the Torah says towards the end of Parashat Bereishit.
*Names changed for privacy
