C hana Leeba shook her head. Yudi was such a youngest he would never get it.

“I mean why would he care about his father when he is too busy worrying about his points and trip to California?” she thundered in the general direction of Yerachmiel who was sitting with his yarmulke tipped forward almost covering his eyes and half dozing in the easy chair. This was the off-season when lazy mornings were spent teaching in a local day camp and he didn’t have to prepare a curriculum or write report cards. He wasn’t looking for any drama. His wife apparently was.

“I mean Yerachmiel even when we were young ” she said saying the word “young” as if it was a medical condition something to apologize for “we vacationed like a kollel couple. We once went to Vermont — remember that little motel near Chabad? With the rabbits in the back? And wait remember that house in Tannersville Tante Gittel’s when we left the food in Lakewood and had to eat matzos from the pantry all Shabbos?”

Yerachmiel wasn’t up for nostalgia.

“The young people now are so different. They all need these crazy trips to who knows where as if it’s coming to them.”

“Mmm-hmm ” he grunted.

“All my siblings are out to lunch. I think we have to get together and we have to do it now. My father is in crisis and no one can find half an hour to come here and discuss a plan of action. Everyone is too busy with their own problems to hear his cry for help. I feel like I’m the only one who realizes that this can send him into a real depression. No one else gets it.”

Yerachmiel felt his spirits lift. He wasn’t really up for an evening of the Reimer children seated at his dining room table Chana Leeba sitting with a paper and pen and issuing instructions about who should call Tatty and what they should say standing up every three minutes to check on the muffins in the oven. He could imagine Yudi lying on the couch spilling popcorn everywhere and poking fun at Chana Leeba.

“You know Yerachmiel my father tried something and I respect him for it I really do. It was a good attempt. But now reality is catching up with him and he’s not getting the camp and no one takes him seriously and he has to face that. And we have to be there for him and for Mommy. I feel like he’s about to crash and burn and nobody in my family even chaps to care.” (Excerpted from Mishpacha Issue 664)