BARBARA CUSHMAN

Dear Cousin Barbara: It is hard to believe it is 11 years since you left us. I miss you and your warmth and talent. I will be lighting a Yahrzeit candle for you. Cousin Robin

It is, once again, hard to believe you have been gone for 10 years. I miss you so much, Cousin Barbara.

It has been nine years since I said goodbye to you. Earlier this week was your yahrzeit on the Jewish calendar, and I lit a candle and recited Kaddish for you. I know you were never religious but I wanted to remember you.

Another year has gone by and still I miss you. I hope you are up there listening to World Music sung by Odetta and Caesaria Evora. Your "baby cousin" Robin

It is hard to believe it has been seven years since you passed on. I miss you terribly, Cousin Barbara. I miss your funky apartment, your collages, and your kindness. you, Judy, Bobby and Lynn were my childhood idols. Then we all grew up. I loved visiting you in SF and Oakland. I hope you are decorating a loft in the hereafter.

Dear Cousin Barbara,

It is almost five years since you are gone. I miss you. I followed you around when I was a little girl, looked up to you when I was a teenager, and admired you as an artist and strong spirit when I became an adult. I hope you are somewhere in the afterlife introducing bling to the other beings, introducing the choirs to world music and fixing up your new studio with your cats in tow. Love Robin

To the young girl who carried me around when I was a baby. To the teenager I toddled after. To the woman who gave me a taste for good food and art and exposed me to a world I could not have imagined: I love you and miss you, Cousin Barbara.