Hi everyone, welcome to thanks for being here, a short, weekly pod to remind us of the many

essential and beautiful ways we affect one another. Every Sunday, I'll read a submission

from a listener of Kelly Corrigan Wonders, could be wedding vows or about mitzvah toast,

a eulogy, or retirement speech. We believe this is probably the loveliest way to tap into

our better selves and remember our highest values. We encourage you to share this podcast

each week with one person you love. Maybe someone you miss and need to bring closer.

Someone you want to feel your appreciation or admiration or both.

This is thanks for being here.

Hi guys, this week's thanks for being here. I was submitted by Joy Thompson and she says,

hi Kelly and team. I've been loving thanks for being here. I wanted to share this tribute. I

wrote to my grandmother, Zelda, after she passed away in 2021. She was a Holocaust survivor and

one of the most joyful, open-hearted people I have ever known. Thanks Joy for sharing

really proud to share this eulogy with everybody today.

I was 10 years old when my mother cut up Shinler's List on our VCR. To my sisters and me, she said,

you need to know what your grandmother went through. But the film's images of suffering didn't

match what I knew of my paternal grandmother, Zelda, her joyful greeting of mine. The way she piled

our plates with her homemade blinces and left vivid red lipstick kiss marks on our cheeks.

She never talked about losing her sister and her parents, never spoke of surviving multiple

concentration camps as an orphan. She had a bustling social life in her West Hollywood neighborhood.

She danced at every opportunity and baste in the presence of her grandchildren like we were sunshine.

When on our wedding day, my husband smashed the glass under his foot and our guest shouted

Mazeltov, Zelda told me afterward that the moment was like the heavens opened.

...