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"M y three-year-old just ran into a door. She now has a very swollen lip and bruised gum. Anyone have any kind of frozen popsicle for us so we can try to contain the swelling?”

This was the text of the desperate e-mail I sent to my local Neshei one hour before an early winter Shabbos. Thankfully all my last-minute preparations for Shabbos were done but that didn’t help the fact that the neighborhood stores were all closed and we had nothing in our freezer to help stop the bleeding and swelling.

The timing of this mini-emergency couldn’t have been worse. I was feeling particularly vulnerable that week since my parents who’d come from abroad for a short once-a-year visit had left just a few days earlier. It had been a difficult few months for me so it was particularly nice to have my parents around spoiling me with attention emotional support even some extras. Their departure left me crying and — even more embarrassingly — begging them like a young child to stay just a bit longer. My parents were surprised at my display of emotion.

“Sari you’ve never once cried over the last ten years when we leave. What’s going on?” my mother asked me with concern.

“What if I really need you?” I meant that in a general sense but my parents thought I was referring to my upcoming labor which they would be missing.

“But you’ve managed to have and raise four kids without us. You’re doing a great job. And don’t worry; if there were a real emergency we could always hop on a plane and come back.” That answer came from my father the logical one.

But it wasn’t a real emergency I was worried about. It was all the in-betweens the times you could really use an extra pair of hands or a favor that you just don’t feel comfortable asking from a neighbor. Or simply those times when you just need a parent’s warmth and support up close not over a phone line.

I recalled the Thursday evening of their visit after a fun but exhausting day trip. It was a busy night for me as I tried to manage bedtime with the kids who were still wound up from the day’s outing while simultaneously juggling the cooking for Shabbos. When I was finally able to take a break to eat it was already ten and I had no strength left to prepare something. I eyed the instant oatmeal in the pantry but I knew I needed something more nourishing. I called my parents who had gone out that evening with some friends.