Commemorative Bench Donations

AYNSLEY:
Gary, Eliza and I will be traveling to Seattle in a few weeks to celebrate Rosh Hashana with our left coast family and to commemorate Mom's first Yerzeit.  It's unbelievable that it's been a year.  It's unbelievable that Eliza's entire life has happened in the absence of hers. But we want to make Eliza's Spirit Grandma just as real as her other grandparents and so we are telling her concrete stories of Mom, showing her pictures, playing voicemails of her voice and planning to have a park bench refurbished in Mom's honor, where Eliza can sit, play and feel Mom's favorite place.

Seattle in the spring. Cherry blossoms in full bloom. A breeze off Lake Washington. Mom on her bike, enjoying Summer Streets.

This is how I remember her. This is exactly how I spent my last trip to Seattle before she got sick, except it was the end of summer instead of spring and the trees were bare. 

We plan to refurbish a bench overlooking the water, under the cherry trees. Mom would have loved that we're recycling, that we're supporting the Parks Department, that this is the Seward Park memory we will have, not the days of the Kline.  It will bear a plaque with her name and this year, the first full calendar year without her. 

Will you help us make this a reality?  The benches are a donation of $3,200 to the Seattle Parks and Recreation Department.  We would love for this to be a community effort, as so much of her care was.  That this bench will belong to everyone, in $5, $15 or $50 increments. We will post a photo and directions. It will be for all of us to enjoy-for all the hundreds of people she touched in her life.  And it will serve as a restful place for hundreds more, who didn't know her, but who will still get to benefit from her life.

If you can make a donation of any amount, please send it to Dad:
Bob Kirshenbaum
4822 140th PL SE
Bellevue WA 98006

OR donate via PayPal:

And if not, we still hope that if you are in Seattle, you will visit this bench, enjoy the view and think of Mom zooming past on her bike, with a smile and with love.