Evan Lunt - A Flame Through the Ages

 

Now, I am not religious at all. My mother's Jewish. My father's a nice little goyim. I was a nice mix. They said, "You can do whatever you want." And I said, "Great. I choose neither. I'm going to choose the holidays that have the best food." So Lent was out the window, Yom Kippur was out the window. [audience laughter] But my grandmother, on the other hand, Elizabeth Tobkis, she was very religious. She was the nice Jew that had the latke in her pocket when we went through her clothes after she died, and we found. [audience chuckles] We were expecting to find money, we were expecting fine jewelry, but we found an old latke. [audience chuckles] And it was great.

 

We would visit her in the nursing home and she would celebrate the holidays with us, and she would celebrate all of the little--, we'd have Hanukkah celebration with her. We'd have a Passover Seder. She wouldn't remember who I was, but we'd have Passover Seder with her. And that continued. Then I had her menorah. And one day I said, "Mom, can I take this menorah to college with me?" And she looked at me, she said, "Absolutely not. This is in my family for too long. You can't take it with you." And I said, "Mom, can I?" It's tradition in the Jewish faith, in case you're not familiar, you ask twice. [audience laughter] And I said, "Mom, can I please take this menorah to college with me?" And she said, "Fine. I'm going to wrap it up all nice. I'm going to put it in a little box, and you're not going to touch it until Hanukkah." I said, "Okay, fine."

 

So, Hanukkah comes around. This is now last year around-- Hanukkah was late last year, it was around Christmas time. So, my house that I lived in with eight other people was mostly Christians. So, we had a Christmas tree. And I said, "Okay, I'm going to Jew this up a little bit. [audience chuckles] I'm going to put the menorah right next to the Christmas tree, right in the window on the second floor so everyone else on the street can see it." And I said, "My grandmother would love this. It's her menorah. She would love this." And each night I would go up and I would walk upstairs because I lived on the first floor, and I'd light the menorah. And first night went by, great. Second night went by, great. Haven't burned anything down. This was an old house. Third night goes by, great.

 

Fourth night comes and I'm feeling a little down. This was-- Senior year of college was a little rough for me, as I'm sure it's a little rough for most people. You're writing thesis, you're dealing with relationships. It's a time. [audience chuckles] And I'm lighting the menorah, and I say, "All right, you know what? Here's something I haven't done in a long time. In fact, my entire life. I'm going to pray."

 

And I do my little-- I sing the song to no one. There's no one there. Everyone's doing their own thing, [audience chuckles] but I'm going to sing it to myself and then to my grandmother. God bless. [audience laughter] And I say, "All right. I'm going to pray." And I say, "All right." I get--. I'm not on my knees because it's a dirty floor. [audience laughter] But I'm going to sit down in my chair and I say, "All right. How do I start? Elizabeth?" No, that's too formal. "Grandma, can you hear me?" And I say, "I'm going to light my candles for you tonight." And I'm going through, and I'm lighting the candles, and it's the fourth night, so you light five candles. And I'm going through the prayer, and I say, "Grandma, can you hear me?" And I look out and looking out the window, nothing. It's cloudy looking out the window. Maybe I'll see something. Is there a cat? No. She liked cats. [audience chuckles]

 

I'm sitting there, and I'm just looking at the candles, and they're flickering and they're flickering, and all of a sudden, they go out. I'm like, “That was weird. There's no wind. I'm inside. There shouldn't be a draft. I paid rent this month.” [audience chuckles] And I say, "Grandma, is that you?" And there's a knock on the door. I'm like, “That's weird.” Again, I paid rent this month. There shouldn't be a knock on the door. [audience chuckles] Shouldn't be anyone coming for me, I promise. And I go down and there's no one there. And I come back up and it turns out one candle had stayed lit. And it's the shammash, which is the candle that you light all the other candles with. And that was the night I realized my grandmother was still with me. Thank you.