I wanted to share the best eulogy said yesterday at my fathers memorial: Thank you Sarah Nour Jung for sharing your memories of my dad with everyone!! Im Sarah and I am ralfs niece. Given that my grandparents moved back to Egypt while I was still very young and I didnt have a grandfather on my mothers side, ralf was like a grandfather to me. As my father waiting quite a long time to have kids, I was one of the first babies in town in quite a while. This was a recipe for a very spoiled childhood. Ralf and I got off to a rough start. He did not like that I was born long and skinny and at this moment him and sasa made it their lifes mission to fatten me up. Thirty years later, it finally worked ! But really, I have the best memories of growing up with Ralf. I Would count the weekends until it was my turn to stay over. My trip always consisted of trips to chuck e cheese, a trip to toys r us (while my mom said one toy only, ralf assured me that she really meant three) and then a trip to thrifty for a square scoop of black cherry ice cream. I would wait and wait for Sonia, Fred, Todd, and Toni to come home while sasa would try to shove olives and rice down my throat with ralf yelling at her to just let me eat candy. The mornings would consist of a trip through the McDonalds drive thru. While I tried to tell him that my mom didnt let me eat McDonalds because it was unhealthy, ralf assured me that the McDonalds in Cerritos was different than the ones near my house and was ,in fact, healthy.I, of course, agreed. My permanent seat was on his shoulders. Many have been there since. When my sister was born, I refused to give this up so ralf was seen many times with two on his shoulders, one on each side. The weekends would always end with ralf sticking money in my pockets and telling me to buy some candy with it and To hide it from my mom. From ralf, I learned the basics every grandchild should learn: how to play craps, smoke a hookah, and how to take bribes... when I would make signs that smoking was bad and parade them in his face, ralf would tell me that hookah also was healthy and that I should give it a try (at age 6). I wanted to be just like ralf. His dog was named king so I named mine prince. Unlike king, my dog was tiny. Ralf used to tell me that they ate dogs like mine in Egypt. He chased him with a lighter but I didnt care because he was Ralf. When my parents announced that they were getting a divorce, ralf sent Sasa to be with us kids as he told me not to worry, that my parents were idiots, and I would be fine. If ralf said I would be fine, then I knew I would be. my nickname, arub, means something like having an attitude or worse, Ive been told. But id like to think that I was his favorite pain in the butt.
Posted on: Sat, 25 Jan 2014 03:56:41 +0000