[powerpress]
Today’s Kaddish—another poorly-recorded, backstage “Kaddish”—is for my friend Maria’s daughter, Isabel, who died on Tuesday from an epileptic seizure. Isabel had been struggling with severe epilepsy for the last several years. I don’t think epilepsy is easy for anyone, but at least many who have it can be treated with prescription medications to the point that it becomes a manageable inconvenience. Isabel was not so lucky. For her, the medications never quite brought it under control, and the burdens that it added to her life—the already-challenging life of a typical teenager—were never so mild as to be “inconvenient.”
I don’t think her parents ever quite got used to it, either, and it came as a horrible, soul-crushing shock to everybody when epilepsy took Isabel’s life. The ripple effects outward into Isabel’s and Maria’s community of family and friends have been palpable.
A kaddish for a beautiful young woman, who had much to offer the world. May she rest in peace, and may her family and friends find comfort in their memories of her.