Laurie Friedman

My mom was not flashy or flamboyant not to say she didn’t love to go gambling any chance she got but she was an extremely kind and loving person. From her days working with my uncle in his pharmacy to her days in retirement conducting the Kiddie Train at Aventura, she was always smiling and trying to help people. She always made the lives of the people around her brighter and better.

She was our foundation, the person we could always count on no matter what, from school activities to football games to baseball and softball games.

Late in her life she had it rough but she never ever let it get her down.

From being by my father’s side and helping him to last 2 ½ years when the doctors said he had six months. To battling and defeating breast cancer, an Aortic Anuerysm, her first and second bouts with lung cancer and through this last round fighting to the end.

As one of my uncles said to me at our last family reunion, she and my aunt Helene, who passed away a few months ago from her own battle with cancer were “Two Tough Old Broads”

SHE SHOWED ME LATE IN LIFE THAT IF YOU FIGHT HARD ENOUGH, ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE.

Today she has left us to reunite with my father and their parents but I know her spirit will always be with us and she will watch over me, my brother and my sister.

Gates To A Promise Land

You may have found the key

to a free spirit

in a promise land

where everything is paradise.

And you may be cured

of everything

that has hit you

full force in the past.

You may not be with us,

side by side,

taking a breath

and letting it out.

But we hold you locked

within each of our hearts.

And we carry you with us

in remembrance.

You have been there

through desperate times

when the clouds drifted over our skies

and rained through our eyes.

You have been there

through times of smiles and joy

as a set of teeth

danced across each of our faces.

You were there for us all

and still are even now

as you reunite

with the man you love.

We will never let you

leave our hearts,

for the bars guarding them

can never be opened.

You will remain in our thoughts forever,

for the memories we have shared are endless.

On this day, a silent tear may fall,

but know that it is falling because

we love you and we care.

It is falling because

we know you have always been there.

-Gabby Friedman