Sign up for Weekday J and get the latest on what's happening in the Jewish Bay Area.

One of my earliest and most precious memories was watching my mother kindle the Shabbat candles on Friday nights. She always used a three-stick chrome candelabra given to her by my father's mother, Bubbe Chana, when she married my father.

After many years of use, one of the candlesticks broke off. However, my mother continued to use it. She would light the third candle and place it in a pie tin. My brother nagged her to buy a new one, but she could never find one she liked.

As a young woman, I moved to the Bay Area and found a three-stick chrome candelabra similar to my mother's cherished but damaged one. I purchased it, disassembled it, wrapped it in tissue and placed it in my suitcase for the trip home. My mother had never accepted or liked any gift that my brothers or I have bought for her. Upon my arrival, I simply gave it to her in tissue paper, still in pieces.

My mother loved it! And she used the new one for the Shabbat candles. I took the damaged candelabra home with me to California, had it repaired and used it to kindle my Shabbat candles. My mother died about three years later. My father used the candelabra for Shabbat candles, too, until he died. After his death, I took the candelabra back with me to Palo Alto. And now, my daughter and I use it to light the Shabbat candles.