Fyvush Finkel, May His Memory Be A Blessing

As the Quakers are wont to say, "Idle hands are the Devil's workshop," and when my father retired, he got ideas.  One of those ideas was that he would not pay the mortgage on his house.

"What do you mean, you're not paying the mortgage?" my mother remonstrated, but my father was adamant.  In the end, my mother divorced my father solely to extract the mortgage payments out of him.

My mother got much more in the divorce because my father was not well represented.  He was outraged when his lawyer asked for money.  "All he did was talk," my father complained.  As a doctor, I think he expected some kind of laying on of hands---not to be forthcoming from a lawyer.

No matter because nothing changed.  My parents divorced and they continued living together, my father paying rent to my mother.  Does that seem odd to you?  Truthfully, it seemed a bit odd to me, but in the Grand Scheme of things, how could I complain?  Other people's parents commit crimes, go to jail, etc.  Really serious shit.  My father paid rent to my mother.  So what?  I was pretty sure, however, that my family was unique in this matter.

Until one day, I turned on the TV and saw Fyvush Finkel singing I Was A Border By My Wife, and my head exploded.  There is a song about this?!  That can only mean other people do this, too.  Who are these other people?  Do the goyim do this, or only Jews?  Can you imagine the waves of relief and amazement that came over me?

Fyvush Finkel increased the sum of human happiness in his lifetime.  As his life was already a blessing, his memory certainly will be one, as well.