January 5, 2022 --

From sundown December 23, 2021 to sundown December 24, 2021,  I marked the 53rd Yahrzeit of my dad, Sol Zukerman.  I lost dad on the 20th of Teveth, 5729, corresponding to January 10, 1969.  We lived about six blocks from Yankee Stadium and Dad took me to many baseball and football games at the Stadium, including the "Sudden Death Overtime" game won by the Baltimore Colts over the Giants. Dad's funeral was on January 12, 1969, the day of Super Bowl III, when the Jets upset the Baltimore Colts.  As Dad believed you should root for the home team, my hunch is that Dad convinced the powers Up Above that the Jets should win.

My mom, Anna Zukerman, had wanted me to become an attorney.  G-d kept her alive long enough to hear me tell her, in her room at Mt. Sinai Hospital, "Mom, my name's in the Law Journal. Do you know that what means?"  She quickly answered, "It means you're in." The New York Law Journal had listed me among those to be sworn-in, at  New York State's First  Appellate Department in Manhattan, Monday, January 17. 

I left the hospital, that evening, January 14, 1083,  to get shoes for the swearing-in ceremony,  and when I returned less than two hours later, mom was in a coma, and passed away in the early hours of January 15, 1983, corresponding to the first day of Shevat, 5783. Mom's funeral was January 16, 1983, and next day I was sworn-in as member of the New York bar. After the ceremony, I went to her apartment to sit shiva for Mom. I marked Mom's 39th Yahrzeit, this year, from sundown January 2, 2022 to sundown, January 3, 2022.   The glow of the memory of my loving parents remains with me as bright as the flame of the candles I light for their Yahrzeits.  I thank the Almighty that Sol and Anna Zukerman were my parents, and know that their memory will forever be a blessing.