Sharing Values, Not Just ‘Valuables’ With Next Generation

Forty years ago, Carol Kodish-Butt was overwhelmed when her husband died from Hodgkin's disease. When she couldn’t find grieving support for her and her son, then just 11 years old, it started a journey that would lead the young widow to found the Edmonton Bereavement Centre--now known as the Edmonton Healing Centre. Today, it's the longest-running grief support program in the city.

Kodish-Butt said at the time of her husband's death, solace came from a rabbi who visited the couple and introduced the ancient practice of making an ethical will.

“My background is Jewish; so was my husband’s, but I’d never heard anything about the ethical will," recalled Kodish-Butt, now a retired social worker. Though her husband was no longer able to write, he dictated his final thoughts to Carol, less than a week before he died.

“Being a philosophy teacher, Gary did his ethical will very logically,” said Kodish-Butt, adding the document has been an incredible guide for the couple's son. "Here is his father saying, 'I'm not going to be able to teach you all I want to teach you as a man, so I hope to put it in here."

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