When Roz Weiss’ oldest daughter, son-in-law and grandson came to see her at Kaiser’s rehabilitation unit following her April 12 hip replacement, Passover wasn’t exactly the first thing on her mind.
Happy the surgery had gone well, Roz, 66, was simply enjoying the visit when her daughter Helena asked nurses when Roz would be ready to go home — and the family realized she might have to miss their annual 25 to 30-person Passover seder.
“I have two daughters, and we usually do one seder at each of their houses,” Roz explained. “But there was no way I was going to be able to get into a car to go over there … so I said, ‘That’s fine, go ahead and do it without me.’ ”
Not so fast, said her family.
“We were all kind of thinking it at the same time, but I think my son said it first,” Helena said. “Why don’t we do it here [at the hospital]?”
Within minutes, it was settled, she said. “My husband went to find someone at the hospital to ask if it was OK, they said it was fine, and it was a done deal.”
A week later, on April 19, 26 friends and relatives — usually bound for Helena’s house — packed around tables in the recreation room at the Kaiser rehab center in San Leandro. The potluck feast had three generations in attendance, and enough matzah ball soup to last for days.
Helena led the seder as usual, with a haggadah she put together a few years ago; her sister Marcy snapped photos and read a story about the meaning of Passover to the younger kids. A friend of the family who attended made flower arrangements for each table. The plagues were represented theatrically: Plastic bubble-wrap represented boils, fake insects stood in for locusts.
A few adjustments were made (disposable plates and cups instead of glassware), but other than that, Roz said, it was just like any other year: food, good friends and a sense of well-being that the family could all be together.
“I just feel very fortunate to have children that will do this for me,” said Roz, who has three children and five grandchildren. “The whole family was happy to go along with it.”
A retired schoolteacher, Roz was born in San Francisco and raised in San Leandro. She joined San Leandro’s Congregation Beth Sholom in 1949. “My family’s been there ever since,” she said.
In addition to working for 19 years in the San Leandro schools, she spent 17 years as a religious school teacher at Beth Sholom. The synagogue has been an important part of her life, she said, and Passover seders have always been a meaningful time for the Weiss family. In that context, she admits, it makes sense that no one was going to let their matriarch miss out on the festivities.
One side benefit of holding a seder at a hospital: no clearing the table or doing the dishes.
“The clean-up was definitely easier!” Helena said with a laugh, noting that her husband, Dan Duman, usually builds extra tables from plywood each year for the seder at their home in Castro Valley.
“It felt like a picnic,” she added. “Even though it wasn’t as fancy, I think it was just as festive.”
And, of course, the best reward of all: seeing her smiling mother, who would be able to come home from the hospital April 21, surrounded by her family.
“I just thought, ‘Honor thy mother and father,’” said Helena. “And I do think she felt honored. She was thrilled. It wouldn’t have been the same without her.”