Before we knew it, Jeremiah was eight! He was a handful, but he was so smart. It never ceased to amaze us how brilliant he was.
But amidst all of the joy of having our son, there was still a sadness surrounding our house. Luisa was becoming more iller more frequently. She would be able to bounce back at the beginning, but as the years went on, it was harder for her to recover. And the illnesses seemed to be getting worse and worse. She had good days and bad days.
Little did we know that the bad days would come more and more. Luisa was becoming weaker and weaker. The next five years passed in a blur. Then came another major life event for our family. Jeremiah’s Bar Mitzvah. He was thirteen now. We had him in a Hebrew school and he excelled. The other students challenged him because of his race. But he was so intelligent that he could easily outsmart them. So here he was, ready to enter manhood at the age of thirteen. He was to become a full-fledged member of the Jewish community with the responsibilities for one’s own actions.
Even though parents don’t adhere to their responsibilities if not deeply religious, they do not force the sons to prepare to read the Torah at service, participate in a Minyan 
(a quorum of ten men to hold religious service), right to possess personal property, be legally married according to Jewish law, follow the 613 laws of the Torah, keep the Halakha (Jewish law), and have the capacity to testify as a witness in a Beth Din (rabbinical court). Little did we know that years later, our son would be in a Beth Din.
Luisa continued to lose her strength and ability to fight like she used to. She had held on for thirteen years since her diagnosis. She had outlived her statistics, but I could tell that she was getting tired. Her body was worn out. She had sacrificed so much for God, Jeremiah, and me. The afternoon naps became longer, the smiles became less, and her appetite decreased with each passing day. She started refusing to see her doctors. I knew I couldn’t enter her private space with God, but I also knew she was giving up. Jeremiah would go to Luisa in the mornings and kiss her on her forehead and bless her. He also knew something was wrong, but he respected his mother and her space.