Elka's passing, funeral, aftermath: May 3, 2005

The Final Details

Elka was admitted to Jewish Hospital yet again on March 7th after having a good week and starting to eat more and more. Sunday night March 6th something was set off and by Monday night she was in the emergency room. She stayed at Jewish Hospital until Thursday March 10th but after a very bad night was admitted to Christ Hospital on March 11th. She was admitted to Christ Hospital since the GI specialist her oncologist wanted her to see practiced there.

It turned out that GI specialist could not do the procedure that was needed. Elka started a new treatment on March 14th - VP16 - and was on it for 8 days. Elka's CAT scan came back on March 15th and the news was bad; her cancer had metastisized to her liver and the odds of another 12 months were fairly small.

On Tuesday night March 15th she was moved to the cardiovascular unit so they could monitor her pulse. A procedure was done to put a stent in one kidney but the procedure to put a g-tube in to relieve the acid reflex and bile in her stomach could not be done since there was no place to put it in. She was moved back to the oncology ward - where she preferred to be.

Elka and Yossi did have the chance to go over many things during the last week that Elka was conscious. As often happens the final blow is delivered by an opportunistic disease like pneumonia. On March 22nd Elka was transferred one more time, this time to the ICU. She needed to be sedated so that she could be put on a respirator and so a tube could be used to get fluid out of her lungs. At the time the doctor said that the next 48 hours were critical. As it turned out Elka was doing far better by Thursday night and there was a ray of hope that she would get past this crisis. Thursday night and Friday (March 25) were Purim, one of Elka's favorite holidays. Yossi read Megilla for her both at night and in the morning (with Deb Feldman there in the morning as well). Purim ended and Elka's condition deteriorated pretty quickly. Dina and Shaul saw their mom on Sunday and each got a teddy bear from her (the ICU staff is AWESOME!). Finally around 3:10PM on Monday Elka was taken off the respirator and passed away 12 minutes later. Her mind, body, and soul were ready and she passed away without any pain. Yossi, her mom Suzanne, and dad Martin were with her.

The Funeral

Elka's funeral took place on March 29th, 2005 in Cincinnati in front of a very large gathering. Many many friends and family flew in from all over to be there and say a final farewell. Her father Martin Klein, her mother Suzanne Klein, and her husband Yossi Francus all spoke. In addition the rabbis from the Conservative synagogue Rabbi Irvin Wise and the Orthodox synagogue Rabbi Hanan Balk also spoke. Internment took place on a stunningly beautiful day in Cincinnati. A download of the remarks made at Elka's funeral are available (PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE do not all download at the same time it will swamp the bandwidth!) here.

Aftermath

Yossi, Dina, and Shaul spent all of Pesach with his brother, Yitzchak, in Pittsburgh. Dina and Shaul had a good time and got lots of attention. Dina and Shaul are starting a program at Fernside, an organization in Cincinnati that specifically works with children 3-18 who have lost a parent or a sibling.
A number of memorials for Elka are being planned in different cities over the next 2 months.

Cambridge, MA on May 8th at 9:30AM at Harvard Hillel, 52 Mount Auburn Street: directions can be found here - please contact Deborah Klapper for more information
Cincinnati on May 11th at 3PM - please contact Richard Karp for more information
Toronto on May 29th - please view this invitation for more information
New York on June 26th - please contact Janet Sachs for more information

Elka's dad is spearheading a book of reminisces about Elka. Here is what he writes:
Friends, I have spoken to some of you about doing a memorial volume of reminiscences of Elka. Yesterday, I met with Jack Wayne, a friend who has a small publishing company. Jack has known Elka since she was six years old. He is willing to subsidize a volume to the degree of providing the formating and editorial work free. What I have in mind is a simple volume. It will have a picture of Elka on the cover. The title will be either Memories of Elka or Remembering Elka. There will also be a number of pictures in the book from different times in her life. Perhaps a single sentence identifying each of us who write. I have made no decision about length, and will accept both short and long submissions. If they are rambling or wordy, I might exercize some editorial discretion and send it back to you, but I have hunch that most of you write well. I am not interested in finding a market. It is for us, those of us who knew and Loved Elka, and of course, more than anyone, for Dina and Shaul.

On May 5th Elka is being awarded the Edith C. Alexander Award for Distinguished Teaching by the University of Cincinnati

Elka's book, one of the last thing she saw was the proofs, will still be published by University of Michigan press. Her father is seeing it through the copy editing and proofreading phase and her colleague Eran Kaplan has secured a grant so that the index will be professionally produced. The book is due out in December 2005.