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A teen and senior share games, brownies,

companionship and lifi.

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SHELLI DOREN/LAN

Sta Writer

hat began as a visit to a Southfield senior became a life
experience and enduring- memory- for 15-yeas-old Lauren
Meklir.
Five months prior to her April, 1997 bat mitzvah at
Temple Emanu-El in Oak Park, Lauren
met Jean Erdos. A resident of Jewish
Family Service's ivlargot and Warren
Coville Apartments, Lauren eras Mtro-
duced to Erdos by Jan liayer, then pro-
gram director for the Southfield assisted
living apartment. The meeting was to fulfil
part of Lauren's 18-hour mitzvah-project
requirement.
At the end of the prerequisite time,
Lauren's mother, Sherry Meklir, and
Lauren decided, "This was different from
packaging Meals on Wheels or working at

Yad Ezra — this was something you don't
leave." Lauren says, "Every time I left, she
had a sad face. It was my responsibility to
keep seeing her, and then we built a
friendship."
The two !net nearly every Saturday, for
three years, until Erclos passed away Oct.
31.
Lauren remembers afternoons filled with
games of Bingo, "War" and "Concentration." She would arrive with a brown-
ie mix, baking pan and measuring cups, and they made brownies. And Erdos
"used to love to paint her nails," says Lauren, with blue her favorite shade.
Bayer says Lauren's relationship with Erdos "was remarkable for some-
o ne her age." Jean Erdos shared stories with. L auren about her two late
husbands and childhood favorites about her younger brother. Erdos went
to Lauren's bat mitzvah and on &dos' birthdays, Lauren and her, mother
took her out to eat and then back to their borne for cake.
When Erdos told I.nuren she had never owned a ring, Lauren bought
her rings on two different occasions.
Bayer, currently director of residential services for jFS, says, "I can't tell you
what Lauren meant to Jean. She was her family." With Erdos having no close
relatives, Lauren. says, "She felt like I was her family, and I felt like that, too."

Occasionally, Lauren also spent time with Erdos two roommates, and
once played a piano concert for the residents of the apartments.
Lauren, who is also the daughter of the late Jules Meklir, is a soph.o-
more at Berkley High School. A busy teen, the honor-roll student plays on
her school's junior varsity basketball team and is part of the peer mentor
program, chosen to help incoming freshmen adjust to high school.
In addition to playing the piano, she has been a violinist for five years, and
is in the symphony orchestra at school. She
recently won the State of Michigan
Reflections Contest for piano composition.
Confirmed at Temple Emanu-El last
year, she continues to attend her syna-
gogue's Hebrew school.
Lauren's mother Called the weekly trips,
to
"quits
During the early visits, herty Meklir sat
the e a:
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Sherry Meklir sa

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After'three years of

ly on SatUrdays, the day they orict
g s°hs' areZren
At Erdos' firneral, Bayer and other JVS . staff Say- they served as'pallbea

ers being her caregivers; Lauren acted as her friend:
Lauren plans to use her baby-sitting money to make sure there are
always flowers placed on Erdos' grave at Hebrew Memorial Park.
She also plans to continue working
in some way \with JFS , a ft er a brie f ••
pause "to keep Jean in mye
m mory. "

❑

1/7
2000

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