One year ago, on New Year’s Eve, my Warrior Queen was in the hospital of the Moffitt Cancer Center recovering from major surgery that removed 1/3 of her left lung that was afflicted with non smoker’s lung cancer.

Her recovery has been by no means easy. But she has been indefatigable!

With enormous courage Vickie has dealt with more kinds of pain than I can describe, adverse reactions to medication, coughing fits, sleepless nights and a never-ending array of tests, pokes and probes.

And yet she moves forward and continues to make amazing progress!

She has embraced — and been lovingly embraced by — the community of Temple Beth Shalom of Vero Beach, which I currently serve as interim rabbi. She does weights, Pilates, plays tennis (her overhead is better than mine as she does not hesitate to point out), and cheerfully endures lots of physical therapy.

I am in awe!

It would be premature to claim that she is “out of the woods,” but what is perhaps even more important is she lives and acts and strides forward as though she is.

In the photo above she is holding the scroll of the Torah. As I stare at that photo, I find myself unsure of where The Torah ends and Vickie begins. She embodies all of the attributes of kindness, caring and courage which the Torah represents.

As we are about to enter a new secular year, my most fervent prayer is that she will continue to stride forward to the Promised Land of Cure.

“Caring, kind and brilliant,” are three words I would use to describe Doctor Andrew Packer.

Maybe, I thought, the reason he spent so much time and took so much care diagnosing and treating my retina issues was because I was his rabbi. In time, though, I came to know that Dr. Packer took the same exquisite care of every one of his patients. 

I have seen more than my share of physicians over the course of my life, but Andy was one of the very few whose office I looked forward to visiting. His staff responded to him as though he walked on water. He was unfailingly considerate and gracious.

I thought of him as equal parts, physician, philosopher and Renaissance man! Often after services, he would ask a thoughtful question or share an observation that made me look closer at a text or make me rethink something I had said. 

He was also in great physical shape, and he shared his passion for healthy living and the value of exercise with others. Often, I saw him at the JCC dressed in his bike riding gear just before or after he taught one of his spinning classes.

There is one other word I would use to describe Andy: gentle. When he put on that contraption with the bindingly bright light that Ophthalmologists use and looked deep into my eyes to examine my retina, it could be very uncomfortable. But knowing Andy’s face was behind that glaring lamp made the experience more bearable.

It has been several years since I have seen him at the gym, in his office or at the synagogue, but his soft-spoken caring manner I observed in each of those places still inspires me.  His memory will endure in my eyes and in my heart as a blessing.