Friends Recall Late Classmate

From the COLlive inbox:

This past Monday marked the Yartzhiet of our dear friend and classmate Chani Kolodny on Tishrei 12. Seven years later, friends from seminary and high school gathered together in her honor.

At a friend’s apartment we recalled Chani’s uniquely virtuous nature. One classmate remarked, “I didn’t know Chani well, but the way she scrupulously and so carefully made sure not to utter a word, lest she speak during davening, is still clear in my mind.”

Another friend recalled the times when they would walk home from school together each day, and Chani insisted they not speak badly about the teachers, so careful not to say a bad word about another person. Together we recalled her thirst for knowledge, her courage to question for truth, and the angelic kindness and sincerity with which she approached life.

Together we split and completed the tehillim in her memory, and as we read in silence with only the soft sounds of the holy words in the room, the inspiration of her memory lingered around us.

We each put money in the pushka, made lchaims, and blessed each other with life, remarking how her memory and passing have impacted our lives, even today.

We wrote a pan to the Rebbe describing the events of the deeply moving and powerful evening, and made a hachlata to gather monthly, each Sunday morning following Shabbos mevorchim, to complete the tehillim in her memory. (To participate and receive notification about the time and location of tehillim please email: [email protected]).

For many of us, it was the first we had spoken aloud of the memories from that day 12th of teshirie, 2007, and a load in our hearts was lightened, from a weight we’ve silently carried for so long.

L’iyulie Nishmat, Chana Bas Yosef, please do a mitzva in honor of a very special girl that will continue to touch the lives of all those she met.