OK... so it took a secular goyim to remind me at the last minute that Hanukkah started earlier this year...
Nonetheless, the candles got lit and the blessings said...
I used the menorah that was given to me from my Grandparents upstate while I was caring for them a few years back.
They both died from cancer... 6 months apart from one another. I decided to home-hospice them myself so that they could die in the comfort of their own homes and without the prostelitizing interference of the religious vultures that often accompany the upstate chapter "Meals on Wheels" programs. I couldn't be there every day of the month, but I did the best I could given the situation... and to be frank, even with the terrible monetary ramifications that decision inflicted on me then (and still does to this day)... I don't regret a single moment of that choice.
This humble cast iron candle-holder is one of the few things I own from their estate... the legions of curiously absent relatives that miraculously showed up around the time of their funeral processions took care of most of the available swag to be had at the cabin. All I managed to snag were a few books of photos, an old wooden Don Quixote effigy, and this odd little menorah.
Again, I regret nothing...
Well... maybe one thing...
I only wish that I'd had the foresight to record my Grandfather speaking...
He had an amazingly deep baritone voice and could tell a WWII story like no one else I've ever heard...
I miss them both a great deal...
Happy Hannukah.
