Saturday, October 10
In the morning, we dressed in our Saturday finest (one step down from the Sunday finest we would be wearing to the wedding the next day), had some breakfast and headed out on a walk to Gary and Marlene's shul (rhymes with "cool" - a shul is an orthodox Jewish synagogue), the Chabad of the Windsors. It was a beautiful and cool morning, which made for a pleasant walk. Unfortunately, Sandra was not feeling well in the morning and decided to stay at the Loren's to try to sleep it off. The shul is new, large and beautiful. There was a crowd of about 120 people, which pretty much filled the place. The highlight for many in the congregation was Matt's aufruf. An aufruf is a tradition where the groom is given the honor of an aliyah - being called to the Torah - at Shabbat morning services, following which, he gets pelted with candy thrown by the congregation. Besides keeping all the little kids amused and busy collecting the shrapnel, it's a symbolic way of wishing the groom a sweet life with his new wife.Following services, there was a big kiddush with lots of food. We visited with the shul regulars, the Rabbi, as well as friends of Matt's and the Lorens's who had come for the aufruf. David in particular got friendly with a bunch of kids. I spent an enjoyable time visiting with Matt's dad, Peter Montel. He had been a K-12 science teacher and had retired 5 years before due to declining health. Though he had had a new heart valve, a pace maker, a defibrillator and kidney cancer, he seemed to me to be a happy and high-spirited man and I found him to be inspiring.
We had a nice walk back to the house and found Sandra feeling somewhat better. Matt and his family came over and we all spent the afternoon talking and eventually napping. When Shabbat ended, we were hosted by the Loren's at an Italian restaurant for dinner, where we were joined by Gary's brother Steven, Loraine (Gary's brother Bruce's widow), Loraine and Bruce's daughters Jamie and Allie, as well as Gary and Marlene's friends from Las Vegas, Lou and Carrey Tarter and their kids, Stacey and Dave. After dinner, we returned to the Comfort Suites hotel in order to leave Gary, Marlene and Jessica some time and space to get ready for the wedding.