Seligman Swartzman Gillis Sandman Joffe Yachad Lederman Fleishman

Eulogy for Issy - Septembet 2018 Our beloved Issy has gone, leaving a huge hole in our world. We want to remember him today as he was before he became so impaired and the everyday tasks of life became impossible for him to do nearly 8 years ago. As Ora reminded us yesterday despite all he went through, especially over the last 4 years, he felt that every day he had here with us was a gift. Despite his alzheimers he knew us and was able to be fully present in the moment, more Zen than any of his children who aspired to such a state of oneness and peace. His qualities that we will always remember best was his spontaneous and ever present warmth and love for Ora and for us.He used to dream that we would all live together one day in a communal set up – like a kibbutz. He would do anything for us and loved us all unconditionally. There was never a question about that. When Ora said goodbye to him she said “You always made me feel like a queen, so secure”. We all knew how much he loved Ora as well as all his children and extended family. Ora told me yesterday how he drove her to East London to see a doctor she heard worked miracles when they were struggling to fall pregnant. He would drive us all, to the wild out of the way places Ora wanted to go to for holidays in the Drakensburg and the Eastern Cape (former Transkei) despite the amount of potholes and really bad sand roads. For example to go and see Queen Mojaji the rain queen when there wasn’t even an existing road. He would go hiking with us all and then afterwards he would have a “brisk read”. Issy was a humble person. He had a razor sharp intellect and read non-fiction mostly. As well as a love of- and for- languages. He could have been an excellent linguist. He wasn’t ever passionate about being a lawyer. He happily accumulated all the cast off artworks and furniture that didn’t meet Ora’s decorating standards for his office. Last week Jonathan and I were reminiscing at his bedside in the hospital that he once had two cockatiels in his office “Jerky and Lurky”. We asked him if he remembered them and taking us to the Dairy Den for Choc 99s as children. We remembered the tortoises and the Japanese Silks – exotic chickens he kept in the aviary he built at the bottom of the garden. He was lying there quite out of it and then he mumbled “I remember” and we knew he was listening and remembering with us. He loved going out for lunch and was a regular at American Icecream for hot brisket and rye in Doornfontein. He insisted on treating everyone in the office and whoever else came along. I have so many memories of meeting him for coffee at Nino’s in Braamfontein. He would phone me and say I’m going to the post office – meet me in fifteen minutes and I would drop everything and walk up from Wits. Issy was so generous that as young adults we used to say to him “have a potplant?” whenever he offered us more and more things – he always wanted to give everyone everything that he had and more. As Jonathan said yesterday: “He was so intelligent and yet an innocent at heart”. There was something so humble and so unassuming about him. He loved drinking filter coffee and eating desserts and sweets – especially malva pudding and dark kitkats.