If we are extremely lucky, there will be people we meet in life personifying the ideal of who we might aspire to.  That was certainly true for me and Ruth Kaplan. Ruth, who passed away in a Florida hospice last week, was the mother of John Kaplan, one of my very best friends since college. I’m here to say they have both influenced my life for the better.

A mom and devoted wife to husband Ralph, who passed away some years ago, Ruth was a gifted artist, journalist, and lover of nature; with orchids being a special interest. She was someone whose quiet dignity and wisdom I respected and hung onto whenever I had chance to spend time with her, but also, as I re-discovered last week while searching for old photos-someone who didn’t take herself too seriously-proven by a series of frames I took of her with John, where she mischievously stuck her tongue out in a few.

Hebrew scholarship states Ruth is the model for Chesed, (חסד) translated to loving kindness. My friend was the embodiment of this human virtue: for all who knew her, and those lucky enough to meet someone like her while traveling their own road of life.