"Sadly and yet proudly we have had our own Randy Pausch in our synagogue this past year. Last December Joan Weiss was told that after three good years, her cancer had come back with a vengeance and it was a matter of time. Joan was also a professor of business at Bucks County Community College. She had touched the lives of hundreds and thousands of young people not only in class but as an advisor to young people in an organization In Free Enterprise. Joan's students competed in national and international competitions against mostly 4-year colleges and won more than once. Joan was also that uniquely special teacher that we never foget. Joan was given the poor prognosis in December and she and Fred with to Disney World with their children and little grandson Darrien. They went to have fun and they did. Then she came back and went back to work because that's what Joan did and that's what gave her meaning. Then Joan and Fred went to Bermuda, Atlanta. She had never seen the Boston Pops but wanted to so they did and went on a three week cruise to Italy, Spain and France in July and then she went back to work for the fall semester. Joan's approach was, The end is going to come but not today. Today was to live and like Randy Pausch, Joan always had a sense of hope. Hope doesn't always come true but hope can sustain us today. Joan told me some months ago, she wanted to go back to Israel but just days before this new year began Joan journeyed to the heavenly Jerusalem.
Joan had a great passion in life. Her passion was not grounded in money. She showed she could be a real success in the business world but she chose instead to teach young people how to find success in the world of business and her passion was grounded in people. One of Joan's dearest friends told me that she thought she was Joan's best friend until she saw how many best friends Joan had."
Given by Rabbi Eliott Perlstein on Yom Kippur 2008
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment