Dear Chana and Ephraim Piekarski and family,
As it must be a busy time of Shiva at the Popack residence, with k"ah so many family members etc, we thought we'd write down a few memories of your father/Zeide, from a non-family member, who knew him casually. Actually, casual is a great way to remember him, for he wasn't one to stand on ceremony or formality, and was quite informal, friendly, almost jovial. He was a practical, down-to-earth person, but with a twinkle in his eye, full of wit, ever ready to hear or tell a joke.
I have a specific memory of the Friday afternoons that I stayed by you for Shabbos, when uncle Ephraim would come for his Friday afternoon visits to Bubbe Piekarksi, and then I would come along for the ride, and he would stop by the Popack's. Although I was no relative, they were friendly and warm, he knew who I was - usually called me "Piekarski" when he saw me on the street (a lot of people in Crown Heights did that).
We also remember him from our first married summer, when we came up for Shabbosim to Kol-Tuv bungalow colony.
When I spoke to SB Hendel, he said he was 93. Truth is that I probably haven't seen Reb Shmuel Isaac in a couple of years, but my memories of him was always with a snowy white beard, but youthful, energetic, funny. He didn't seem to be an old man.
I also remember one joke he told me - and there's a sculpture downtown Albany with a similar message that makes me think of it every time. He said that he overheard two schnorers talking in 770. One said, "When I win the lottery, I will build a synagogue 10x the size of this, and I will be the ONLY one allowed to collect there!" It's a great message about people who think outside the box - but in the box. The sculpture is disagonally across the State Museum, at the Empire State Plaza. It's two large metal squares. One sticks out, juts out of the other, but it is also a box!
We wish you all: HaMakom Yenachem Eschem b'soch Sha'ar Aveili Tziyon vYerushlayim. May he be a guteh better, for all his family, Ka'H, and certainly everyone has warm memories of him.
Mendel, Raizy and Family
Albany, New York
The sculpture at the Empire State Plaza
