Tommy Mandel

A babynaming ceremony
is marked by joy ...
and sadness.

Allie
Mandel

ALAN HITSKY

Associate Editor

A

lexandra "Allie" Brenner
Mandel returned to her
Michigan roots last week to
visit with aunts, uncles and
cousins, and to be named for a grand-
father she would never get to know.
According to a letter written by
Allie's father, Mark, of San Diego:
"My daughter was born Aug. 21.
Two weeks before Allie was born, my
father Tommy was enjoying his hard-
earned retirement in sunny San Diego
and looking forward to babysitting
Allie and her brother Jake when my
wife returned to work.

"He never got the chance. He was
diagnosed with a fast-spreading cancer,
and died four weeks after Allie was •
born. [On Nov. 28 at Temple Israel in
West Bloomfield,] Allie was given the
Hebrew name Yosefa in loving memo-
ry of her grandpa Tommy.
"As we emerge from this unimagin-
able juxtaposition of life and death, I
am hopeful. I hope that, along with
his name, my daughter inherits Yosef's
love of life.
"My father was a survivor in every
aspect of his life; from the beginning,
when he lost his childhood and his
father, but survived the Holocaust; to
the end, where he fought his disease
with courage and dignity.

"I hope that my daughter inherits
his love for his family. I pray that she
is blessed with his sense of self-respect.
"Allie's birth did not lessen our
grief. But, as her grandfather would
have wanted, it forced us to focus on
life at a time of death. Perhaps,
somehow, he made it happen that
way.''
The Mandels have been returning
to Detroit for the Thanksgiving hol-
iday for the last 4-5 years. Mark's
parents, Tommy and Rene, lived in
San Diego since Tommy's retirement
as a vice president of Alaron, Inc. in
Troy. Tommy was 62 when he died.
'We consider Detroit home," said
Mark. His wife, Melissa Brenner, is a

Detroiter, too, and her mother still
lives here. The couple was married at
Temple Israel, and Mark's brother
and sister-in-law, Dr. Shlomo and
Rhonda Mandel, live in Bloomfield
Hills with their children, Nicole and
Jonah. Brother Jay, his wife Lauren
and daughter Rachel came in from
Washington, D.C., for the week-long
family gathering and babynaming.
"One thing we learned from
Tommy's death," Mark said, "is to
appreciate your family. We learned
more about Tommy after his death
than we knew about him in life" by
reading documents and papers that
Tommy had saved over the years. LI

12 /4
1998

Detroit Jewish News

47