A TRUE "ROSE"
BY TANYA (KRASNOV) ROSEN
I remember when we first heard of her passing, we cried and cried and cried.... One of our teachers as well as a Rabbi that came to speak to us said that as time passes, so will our tears. They said that little by little life would go on and we would stop crying. It was a hard thing to imagine. Stop crying? Forget? How could they even say such a thing? Just the other day I realized that her Yartzeit was approaching and I did not cry or even think about her for a long time. I got busy. I finished high school and saw the people that reminded me of her less and less. I no longer went to her gravesite as I used to. I got married and had a baby and became overwhelmed with daily concerns. Laundry, cooking, school work, and baby food filled my mind each day. This bothered me. Last night I took out the booklet that was published in Shoshana's memory shortly after her passing. I am sure that many of us have this very same booklet in an accessible location. Mine sits on a visible shelf, yet I always hesitate to pull it out. Last night I finally did. I began to read all the beautiful things written about Shoshana and, finally, the tears came. I cried. I cried over her early passing, I cried over the unimaginable pain of her mother, I cried over my not crying all these years. In this booklet, I keep a picture that was taken a long time ago. It's a picture of the G.O members' horseback riding trip celebrating the end of the school year. It was Shoshana's last horseback riding trip. In the picture, Shoshana is sitting on the grass, holding a bencher. Her head is rolled back because she is laughing hard. I remember her laughter because it was so contagious. She was one of those people that made you laugh just because they were laughing. I used to refer to her as "my favorite person to see in the hallway." No matter when she saw me, even if she had just seen me right before, she always had a huge smile and something fun to say.
The last time I saw Shoshana was at our G.O. dinner at the end of the school year. I complimented her on her outfit. She told me that she got it at Talking Fashion. She said she never knew a Jewish store could have such cool clothing that's also tznius. She said that she would make sure to shop there from now on. She never did.
That Summer I wrote Shoshana a letter. I told her to be extra careful because it was the nine days. The letter never reached her. I was given back the letter, sealed, by one of her friends at her funeral.
I often think about everything Shoshana left unaccomplished. She would have been only 21 years old now. I think of the high school graduation she did not attend, the college applications she did not fill out, the SAT scores she did not eagerly await in the mail. I think of the beautiful family she would have surely raised. I try not to dwell on the unaccomplished and instead focus on what she did accomplish. Shoshana was a model daughter. She was extremely close to her mother, and always very respectful. Shoshana was a leader and used this skill in positive ways, persuading her classmates to stay in yeshiva instead of switching to public school. She wrote poetry, rode horses without fear, and most importantly, made people laugh. She truly made people happy.
I want to quote some of the beautiful things written about Shoshana in the booklet put together in her memory:
"She had this burning spark of energy flowing within her, which she made sure to pass on to others."
(Miss Motsenyat)
"You couldn't stop laughing by the Shabbos table at our last Shabbaton. The hosts thought you were adorable and joined in right along. You always managed to add so much spunk to every atmosphere. Your laughter still echoes in my memories." (Tanya Levina)
"Shoshana had this way of seeing things which no one else did. She had this way of turning every day mundane moments into exciting ventures." (Tanya (Krasnov) Rosen)
"Can anyone really remember Shoshana without remembering her beautiful smile? It lit up her face. It practically lit up the room." (Miss Lichtenstein)
"To have known Shoshana was to have experienced a sense of expectation for her future. Her classmates, and certainly her teachers, looked to her as a person of great potential." (Miss Lichtenstein)
"We have to continue to live and to preserve the memory of our Jenny. No one loved to live, to experience, to explore more than she did." (The family)
SHOSHANA, WE MISS YOU AND WE WILL NEVER FORGET YOU!
Shoshana Reznitsky was a Be'er Hagolah student. She and two of her classmates were working as mother's helpers in Monsey in the Summer of '99. On July 17, 1999, an off duty drunk police officer struck the girls as they were walking at night. Shoshana was niftar shortly thereafter. Shoshana was 15 years old at the time, about to enter the 10th grade.
