The Potential Carpool Partner

I have never met Mrs. R. We became acquainted when the admissions office of my daughter's new school gave me her number as a possible carpool partner. I called her to see if she was interested in carpooling. I learned that she never picks up in the afternoon and that her son takes public transportation with a couple of other boys. She did not think it would not be a problem for my daughter to join them.

I do not know how old Mrs. R is. Her eldest child is 41 years old and her youngest is in 10th grade. Her husband died suddenly 5 years ago. He was a theoretical physicist. At the time her husband died, her son transferred from a very orthodox Jewish day school to a more modern Jewish day school. She told me the community at the new school was enormously comforting, kind, sympathetic, and were instrumental in helping her son deal with the loss. The director of the very orthodox school called her within a couple of weeks of the husband's death and said, "Now that your husband is dead, perhaps your son should return to school here." She was appalled. How inappropriate!

Mrs. R does not work. She is disabled. She did not tell me what type of disability she has. She did tell me she does not frequent one of the local synagogues because it does not have handicap access. I imagine she is in a wheelchair.

She takes care of her 86 year old father.

It turns out her daughter-in-law comes from the same part of the world as my in-laws.

Her first name is the same as my hebrew name.

I wonder what she looks like.