In the silence before my mother’s funeral, the rabbi pinned a black grosgrain ribbon to my lapel. “Like Jacob, tearing his cloak when they brought him the bloodied coat of his son Joseph, today you too tear your garments,” he said, slashing the ribbon with a pocketknife. Three more ribbons, pinned to my father, my brother, my mother’s brother. Three more severing slashes. No sack cloth. No ashes. No literal ripping of clothes. But the cut is very real, a tear in the fabric of my soul. Thirty years later, a shred of ribbon still rests in my jewelry box.
Liane Kupferberg Carter is the author of the award-winning memoir "Ketchup is My Favorite Vegetable: A Family Grows Up With Autism." www.lianekcarter.com