Thursday, August 15, 2013

Sister Sheri's Eulogy


Proverbs 23:25 
Let your father and your mother be glad, and let her who bore you rejoice.

Eddie was my Mother’s Sunshine; 

My brother was born at Cedars on July 27th 1964 … My Mother Leah always boasted that Eddie was a happy, compliant,  adorable baby….. He was her sunshine with his sunny blonde hair..(yes he had hair , thick beautiful hair….)…………..She has fond memories  of his toddler years….like when she found a wad of tin foil in her 1 yr old son’s mouth.  Not being able to fiqure out how it got there, she looked around and found ..ah hah! the ding-dong box…apparently he had snatched one and sucked the chocolate and cream out and all that was left was the wrapper!  He had a very cheerful disposition……however, ….on one ocassion mom heard crying coming from the other part of the house…when she found Eddie,  something was streaming out of his mouth …. he had swallowed a bottle of magic bubbles!… and the more he cried, the more bubbles he made…….

Our Mother Leah is not able to attend today due to her advanced Parkinson’s, but she would have said she loved him more each and every day of his life, and was proud of each of his accomplishments, ecspecially his family…his wonderful wife Lorin and children Dylan and Matthew.

II  
Sadly, Eddie and I lost our father when we were young.  But we were truly blessed when Richard Pozil came into our lives.   On Richard and my Mom’s first date,  Eddie greeted him at the door  and hi!...     “Wanna Wrestle”???.......         Richard spent a lot of quality time with Eddie…teaching him how to throw a ball,  taking him to the park to fly kites, and later teaching him how to drive in his speial, classic, 1969 Mustang…..  Richard has fond memories of Eddie’s youth like him dressing up in a suit and bow tie and carrying around a breifcase, playing the part of a grown-up man,  But what Eddie really wanted to be in his young years was a sports announcer.  He would walk around the house with his play microphone and inpersonate Vin Sculley, giving the play by play of a dodger game. 

After Mom and Richard were married, we moved from our duplex apartment  in the Carthay area to Mississippi Ave in west Los Angeles.  We were joined by Richard’s two sons, Robert and Bennett Pozil, with whom we built a new family… he aslo lovingly chose to adopt Eddie and I , and we lived out our youth and the rest of our lives having this great man as our Father.

Richard is so proud of how Eddie has used his skills in communication in his adult years, excelling as a publisist, commanding the highest respect from the entertainment world and of course, from his dad.

III 
Websters dictionary definition of a hero as: a man admired for his achievements and noble qualities ~ one who shows great courage ;
Eddie was my hero:

I was born 15 months after Eddie, so he got a little sister.  He  ocassionally called me by my first name, but I was more than just ‘Sheri” to him.  As we sat happily eating tv dinners in front of our black and white tv with 8 stations, I was often referred to as ‘Robin’ when watching “Batman” , and “ Gage “, while watching “Emergency , and Bones when watching Star trek.  When he so graciously played house with me,  I was “Ima”, while he was “Abba”.

 I used to sleep surrounded by bean bag animals, and Eddie knew they were all precious to me.  So he would conduct mock fire drills from the upstairs of our two story duplex, he running frantically down the stairs in order to catch a pillow case full of stuffed doggies and bears I tossed from the upper window, saving them from certain peril…….I was constantly amazed when  we were driving in the my mom’s green Falcon how he always knew when we were stopped at a red light the exact moment the signal light would change from red to green~  He was a genious in my eyes!!!   

Eddie did not always express his feelings with me with words, but rather with actions.  As a young adult I was very ill with a virus, just laying on my parents couch for many days.  One day after a nap, I awoke to see the biggest arrangement of flowers known to mankind on the table…from Eddie.

A couple hours before he passed away Thursday night, he was responsive.  I went over to where he could hear me and I said to Eddie, Hi …it’s me..Sheri….He opened his big brown eyes and looked straight at me…His love needed no words…

Eventhough my heart is grieving, and losing Eddie  is a tremendous loss, I can say with all honesty that G-d  is so good to have given me my brother from the moment I was born…My cup runneth over…

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