I am writing to honor, remember and celebrate my dear grandmother, my Babushka Kissa. I have had the privilege of having an amazing, loving grandmother for 29 years.  She was a wonderfully caring, intelligent, graceful, elegant and wise person who loved me and everyone in my family dearly. 

For those of you who may not have known her, my Babushka was the head of our family – she was our matriarch and it was a great loss when she started to lose her memory. She was an unending source of wisdom and I could always come to her for advice, and I know that I was not the only one.  She was always patient and reasonable, which was needed in our crazy neurotic family.

Everyone who ever met Babshka was impressed by her intellect. She was a smart cookie, as Leva would say.  Babushka was a highly-respected defense attorney in Moscow and I remember her stories in the dining room at Peterborough Street in Boston around a strong cup of tea and sweets. I was intrigued by the cases she handled and criminals she defended.  How could my sweet grandmother run around Soviet prisons to defend hardened criminals?  Babushka was extremely compassionate and she had a mission to defend people and ensure that justice was served in the harsh Soviet system. She was a brave, very strong, and confidant woman. She was a true advocate, and other lawyers and secretaries would come just to listen to her in the courtroom.  When I went to Moscow a few years ago and visited our old neighborhood, I met former neighbors who remembered Babushka and what a great lawyer she was.  You can imagine that it was a transition for Babushka to leave her career and status in cosmopolitan Moscow and start a new life in Boston.

But she did. And she continued learning and seeking knowledge. She attacked English, taking classes at Bunker Hill Community College and getting straight As, not surprisingly. She was always reading, whether a new Russian novel from the Boston public library, a Pushkin classic (she would recite Chednoi Son Tatyani from Evgenii Onegin for us), or the Novoe Ruskoe Slovo. And she was very proud of me when I could recite a few poems in Russian – both Babushka and Dedushka made sure that I did not forget my Russian and Babushka would practice padiji with me.      

Babushka was also always very elegant and well-dressed, her hair always neatly coiffed; she had a selection of classy dresses that she paired with her signature gold brooch. Two of her dresses stand out in my memory – a beige dress with buttons going up the front and a little belt as well as a black satin gown where her brooch stood out beautifully. She always had red lipstick on, and her beautiful hands were always well-manicured; she and my mom would do their nails together.

I have so many childhood memories of us together – many at Peterborough street where I would often spend the night on the pullout white leather couch. Babushka would make sure that I was well fed, cooking amazing katleti, the best ragu (ratatouille – sorry mom), or my favorite, mushroom julienne. Sometimes we would make cabbage pirashki together and for dessert, Babushka's healthy dish was baked green apples sprinkled with sugar. She also made the absolute best borsht (sorry mom again). I could never go hungry with Babushka around, hunger was as much of a crime as murder in her book. 

As many of you know I now live in Paris and I fell in love with Paris together with Babushka, when we went with her to visit Walter there in high school. It was an amazing trip. Walter met us at the airport and I remember every detail of our first French meal, at an amazing restaurant on the Champs Elysee. Babushka and I walked all over the city, going to the Louvre and the Eiffel tower. We practiced memorizing Russian poems in our hotel room for my Russian theatre class, and she was patient with my indecision over which croissant to choose at the bakeries. She loved discovering Paris, a city of with so much culture, history and art. She went back again and I wish that I could show her my neighborhood, she would love it. 
Before Paris, there was also Houston Texas, where Babushka, Dedushka and I went to visit Walter who was working there at the time. It was in August, in 1994 I think, so extremely hot and we would walk around Walmart to keep cool.   

There were our annual summer trips to Cape Cod for a couple of weeks every summer where Babushka and I would wade in the water together and sing Baba Seyela garoh. Babushka and Dedushka would come with mom to see me off at Camp Farwell and then to pick me up. 

It all seems like yesterday, that we would have huge dinners all together at Peterborough street, taking a walk together in the Fenway, sniffing roses in the rose park, worry about parking because of a baseball game. But it was nine years ago that Dedushka passed away and now my dear Babushka has gone.

You all know that Babushka was sick these past years.  She slowly lost her memory and her abilities, but she never lost her elegance or her smile. Whenever I visited her she always had an amazing smile and her eyes shined with love and warmth. 

Babushka was a fighter her whole life- in her work and for her family, and she kept fighting until the end, with my mom and Walter fighting with her every step of the way. 

We have always been together, through hardships like immigration and sickness, and happiness, like graduations and new additions to the family, and even though Babushka will not be there physically, I know that she is with us in spirit and in our hearts. I know that she is watching over us and protecting us, like always, and guiding us in making the right decisions.

She lives on through her family and we will always love, remember, and celebrate her.

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Stanetsky Memorial Chapel

Kissa Ehrlich

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OBITUARY

Kissa Ehrlich

December 7, 1923 – September 8, 2012

Stanetsky Memorial Chapel

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