With heavy grief, I announce the passing of my wife Judith at age 88. She has left us after many years of struggle with Alzheimer’s and, more recently with cancer of the pancreas. She was pre-deceased by her parents and by her brother John. In addition to myself, she will be greatly missed by her sister Marianne, her sister-in-law Erika, and her nieces and nephews Lorna, David, Melissa, Aaron, Daina, Stephanie, Cary, Ted, and Niki, as well as their spouses and children. Also, many others will consider her passing as a great loss, including her numerous friends in her social life and in the shul.

Judith was an exceptional human being. Intelligent, wise, self-assured, cheerful and loving, she always had a big smile on her face. She was blessed with that rare inner beauty that age cannot touch. A well-respected professional, she was used to people turning to her with the most difficult questions while in business, also in her retirement. And she was a great helper to me, her husband for 66 years, making my business achievements possible by her quiet, steady and intelligent support.

Born in Budapest, Hungary, Judith Pesti was a Holocaust survivor. Her father was taken by the Nazis when she was only 5 years old, and she remembered those horrible years as hiding with her mother in basements, pretending to be a gentile girl, not always succeeding, shaking at the sound of sirens—the heavy trauma followed her all her life. And she soon learned about her father’s death in a concentration camp. After liberation, things improved: her mother re-married, her stepfather Imre Komlos adopted her, and she learned to love him as her own father all her life. She had also gained two new siblings, Marianne and John. She was an outstanding student through all her schooling. And partly due to those schools, she met her future husband, Andrew Sanders (though at that time my name was Andras Szekely), and while rejecting my proposal at age 17, she accepted it three years later. By that time, I lived in Canada; and Judith, still in Hungary, decided to join me there with her family, after a short Israeli residence. First Judith came to Canada, we married, and two years later her family was to follow her, and did, with the exception of her father, who passed away in Israel shortly before his planned travel.

In Canada, we had a happy, productive life, full of enjoyment, including travelling all over the world. The only pain Judith and I had was not having been blessed with children. But perhaps that fact made our devotion for each other even more intense. After her early retirement, Judith and I made Aliyah, bought an apartment in Haifa, and spent nearly half of every year in Israel, for a full 25 years. We sold that apartment only when approaching old age made that lifestyle difficult, if not impossible.

All of Judith’s many friends, both in Canada and in Israel, loved her for her care, her affection, her charm, her deep intelligence, and also, I think, for her permanent beauty.

During her last years, while fighting with dementia, she remained her loving and lovable, delightful person. That may have accounted for the many “angels” who surrounded her at home, and particularly in the shul, where she needed constant help in following the service. I would like to mention that super “angel” Irene Weiss, who sacrificed her own enjoyment by sitting with her and making sure that she would not be lost while following the ritual. And I wish to express particular appreciation to that gem of a friend in her old age, one a full generation younger, Gayle Pope, who had spent so much of her valuable time with Judith at our home and also hers. A great thank you to Rabbi Kanofsky who was such a great help in her last months and days.

And finally, a special thank to our caregiver Rodante Alipio, who devoted all his time to the well-being of Judith, an increasingly difficult task over the past 2 ½ years; and to our junior helper, Krishanthi DeSilva.

Shiva will be observed at our home, 65 Skymark Drive, Apt. PH05 (at Don Mills and Finch) after the funeral, until 4:00 pm.

Memorial donations may be made to the Kehillat Shaarei Torah (416) 229-2600 http://shaareitorah.com