Vivacious spirit, shining soul, infectious smile, the definition of kindness; the best friend one could ever hope to have. Describing our dearest Andy, these are some of the words that come to mind. Speaking on behalf of Marla, Jason, Danielle and all gathered here today, we are shattered at the death of our beloved Andy. It seems impossible to accept that her light has faded. Such a vibrant amazing human being! All through these last four and a half years, we never wanted to contemplate that Andy would loose this battle. Maybe there was a sense of unreality that this could happen, but none of us wanted ever to put any negative thoughts out there – never to actually concede that this battle would end this way – we all wanted and prayed and begged for a miracle for our darling Andy. But that was not to be. We have never known anyone to fight so hard – the respect for her struggle and her poise and her grace is immense and beyond words.
Marla and I met Andy and Jeremy on the day they arrived in Los Angeles. We were living in our little two bedroom apartment on Third Street in Santa Monica and Marla had arrived home from work after having stopped at the grocery store, and as she was struggling to get all of the bags of groceries into the elevator, a voice came from behind in a strong South African accent, “can I help you with your parcels” And from that day on we were all inseparable. Andy and Jeremy were staying temporarily in an apartment above us and we basically saw each other everyday from that first meeting in the elevator. A one-bedroom apartment became vacant two doors away from us and Andy and Jeremy moved in, with a lot of pressure to the management by all of us. Jason was just about a year old and as he started to walk, he would shuffle over to their apartment everyday holding his blanket calling Andy Andy – it was as if we were living on a kibbutz - those were wonderful fun times. We would picnic at Will Rogers Park, Josh and Danielle playing together – going to the beach together – then came Gabi and later Sammi.
When we decided to buy a house and move to Sherman Oaks, Andy was particularly upset, thinking they’d never see us again. Thinking back over the years, we have such wonderful fond and meaningful memories of our friendship and our connection – we are all family, there is no other way to describe it – going down as a big group all those times to Sheldon and Ursula in San Diego.
Andy had a magnetic personality; people were completely drawn to her in a very short time. Andy belongs to everyone. Thank you for the wonderful times together – for the love, the warmth of a lifelong friendship in this country.
Jeremy, Josh, Gabi and Sammi – Bella and the Dick and Hurwitz families, we have to say goodbye to her physical presence, we will cry and we will laugh as we all recall wonderful memories of Andy, but we are all so incredibly blessed by having had Andy in our lives, and her essence, her beautiful spirit and her radiant smile will remain with us all for the rest of our lives. She will live on in our memories; the love we have for her will never die, and we will never ever forget her beautiful soul.
Elizabeth Kubler-Ross wrote:
The agony is great and yet we will stand it. Had we not loved so much, we would not hurt so much. But goodness knows we would not want to diminish the precious love by one fraction of an ounce. We will hurt. And we will be grateful for that hurt, for it bears witness to the depth of our meaning. And for that, we will be eternally grateful.