Sara Riva Tulbowitz

Just yesterday I celebrated my 54th birthday. As the duality of this world would have it, so too did I remember the death of Sara Riva Tulbowitz. You might ask, how did a catholic, Italian Pole in his 50's with a name like "Pulichene" meet up with a Jewish girl, age 17 named "Tulbowitz". An even better question would be how did a guy who was born in 1956 meet a girl who was born on August 2o, 1924 and died in 1941. hhhmmmm.

Well the answer lies with a truly wonderful web site: www.eachofushasaname.org

I was made aware of the site by a very dear friend whose 14 year old son created it to honor the victims of the holocaust. There are many ceremonies that pay tribute to and remember those who lost their lives during that horrible period of our human existence. However, my friend's son came up with this way of honoring every single person whose life was tragically taken on the anniversary of their death. Thereby, the name ..... each of us has a name. How fitting. How beautiful.

So that is how I became acquainted with Sara. Some how, I connected with her instead of so many others. Since there was not an actual recorded date of her death, it was permissible to pick a date. As an easy way to remember, I picked my birthday as the date to remember her death. I also wanted to honor the 17 years of her life and try to imagine her as a teenager. This was very impactful for me since my daughter is 22 and not so far off in age from Sara when she died. How tragic and how unfair that Sara's life be taken before she was able to grow into who she could have become.

So next time you hear me complain about another birthday and getting old , please remind me of Sara who never had that chance. God bless you, Sara and I wish you peace. You will be remembered!!

For more information about this meaningful web site and to select a name to remember: www.eachofushasaname.org