M. Evan Wolkenstein

My little cuz: it took a funeral to meet her. A gift from beyond the grave…? This is day 14 of a New Year’s Resolution. 1. Some things really are forever. 2. It’s possible to be an agent of change without even being alive. 3. Jewish comfort food is actually comforting. 4. The most important conversations are one-on-one, but they might require a little extra effort: eg. sleeping on a couch in your clothes or sitting in a freezing-cold parked car. 5. There are three sides to ev

Like father, like son. This morning, I came downstairs dressed for my Uncle’s funeral. I’d assembled a cozy sweater and blazer and a tie that my parents had given me some years back. It wasn’t the usual black suit, but as I’ve said, my Uncle wasn’t a black suit sort of guy. That, and I knew it would be a long day. I dressed for comfort. Not comfortable, per say, but comforting. My father was dressed, already, in a look brilliantly executed, as if from the pages of a classy Br

Apprehensive. This is day 6 of a New Year’s Resolution. An hour ago, when I said goodbye to my Uncle, it was really goodbye. He might make it through the night. Maybe. But there is no other conversation to be had when the patriarch of your family wishes you a good life and tells you to “take care, kid.” This has been a year of loss. Close family friends have lost wives and mothers. My parents lost a close friend. But all of these were sudden and traumatic and tragic and the F