ND's Mitzvah

We paid a shiva call today to the family I wrote about in religious quandary
.

It was a little hard. I expected to sit with the woman I know and ask about her mother and to cheer her up by introducing her to ND.

But the place was somewhat chaotic with lots of family and visitors, and the person I came to visit was busy with some things so we only spoke briefly on and off.

However, her father, the husband of the deceased, walked through the room and saw ND. He asked if he could hold her and you could just see him melt. "I really need this," he said several times and said it was the best therapy he could have. I cried. My friend cried. ND screamed, so I had to take her, and then the man cried too.

Unfortunately ND was very upset for awhile then. I think she was overwhelmed by the 3 young girls who were oohing and aahing over her just moments before and from all this special attention, so we spent most of the rest of the time in another room with me trying to calm her down. When she finally felt better, it didn't last long. She was really exhausted and needed to go to sleep (which she did in the car), but before we left I let the man hold her once more and I spontaneously offered a hug myself. I usually don't touch any men except family and he was a stranger, but it just felt like the right thing to do.