MaryAnn Bennett Rosberg Chicago, IL email Hear an audio version of this piece can't hear it? Wrapped in Grace Everything finally depends on you: big eyed Aunt Grace--. my husband's aunt who used to watch whether we were true or not-- never what we said. Scatting scatological references at weddings and buffet luncheons, you reminded us we have other functions even more basic. You hadn't talked to us in seven years from your world. All was reduced to the call from the home on our machine. Did you eat or not that day? Would you die or not during the weekend-- flavored our dinner parties, getaways. We had watched a machine breathe your older sister--never again. We had watched a sugar water drip eat your younger sister--never again. We said, give you nothing more than what you want. And you surprised us by still wanting ice cream, now and then... We were wrapped in your life, Grace. The rabbi (as old as you were), at your graveside said giving burial to a woman without husband, brother, sister, father, mother, or child was of the 612 commandments, the one worth keeping, mitzvah enough to keep us from hell-- wrapping us in grace.

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