Once in a while, when trying to put things in order, I come upon my mother's desk 'talking' clock - a device meant to help the visually impaired.
During the last decade of her life, Mom was almost blind , as a result of the glaucoma disease, and could not see the numbers on a clock. So, we bought her a talking clock so that she could hear the time.
The amazing thing is that the clock kept telling the time some seven years after her death. I didn't know a battery could last that long! I had all kinds of thoughts about it, especially that there were other things that puzzled me. The fridge and air-conditioner both suddenly stopped working after her death, and couldn't be repaired; the engines were totally dead. It was as if these household items "died of a broken heart".
Anyway, her intense blue eyes stayed beautiful till the last moment.
Whenever I come upon the above clock, I turn to the music of Andrea Bocelli, the blind italian tenor. Bocelli was diagnosed with glaucoma at the age of 12, but he completely lost his eyesight , according to biography, after an accident. His music reminds me of Mother, especially that she had a good voice and liked to sing a lot, mainly cantorial pieces (chazzanut). Her and mine favorite cantors were Malavsky and Kossowitzky.
