| Recently , Hadassah ( Dassie) Sanders sadly passed away after a courageous struggle against pancreatic cancer .
Her love of the outdoors has encouraged her husband Rodney to take up the challenge and ride across America.
It is hard to find words to describe our beloved Dassie. So we added a letter written by our family member Colin Froman.
Letter written by Colin Froman:
Ruth Esakov married my brother, Ian Froman, on March 31st 1963. I was the Best Man, and Ruth’s sister, Hadassah, was the Maid of Honor.
So I met Dassie nearly 45 years ago, while Ian was courting Ruth.
The family lived in a warm rambling house in Lambton, a suburb of the dusty commercial mining town of Germiston, some 20 miles from Johannesburg. The house was always full of people and Dassie’s mother Minnie, and her mother, Miriam (Ma) Dunsky catered in legendary style.
Dassie acquired naturally from Minnie and Miriam the skills and warmth of constant hospitality and domestic talents that characterized every home she ever graced. Minnie and Ma Dunsky’s Zionist connections and Harry’s origins in Israel long before the State were so inbred, so inherent in Dassie’s life and thinking that her aliyah to Israel in 1963 was inevitable.
Dassie decorated, in a style that was her own. It was unique and elegant, beautiful and welcoming. Everything was comfortable. Her taste was impeccable. It didn’t matter whether she was living in a two-roomed apartment on the outskirts of Jerusalem or in a palace in Caesaria. The charm shone through.
Dassie was a gardener with green, green fingers. Everything bloomed for her. The soil on which she stood gained life and plants flourished. The landscaping, big-scale small-scale, was composed and always homogeneous.
Dassie dressed in fashion but she wore what she sewed, not what she bought. She was able to design, cut and complete any garment with skills, both inherent and acquired, from the years when she hung on to Minnie’s skirt tails in the Belfast Dress Factory in Germiston. She looked like a queen when she reigned with Rodney when he ran hotels in Tel Aviv, Amsterdam and Jerusalem.
Dassie walked, talked and dined with ambassadors, diplomats, moguls and the hoi-poloi without ever being flustered, or lost for small talk. She was able to rescue any dithering discussion at any dinner table.
She was well-read, spoke Hebrew and English with native fluency and nuance. She laughed a lot and anybody in her company had to laugh with her. She was more than computer-literate. She ran businesses with flair and she was able to generate financial independence for herself whether in bad times or good. She had inventive ideas and practical skills that led her and her delightful father, Harry, to succeed with BGS, a company that helped olim with their imports, or in latter years as indispensable girl - or better - Lady Friday, in any job in which she chose to be employed.
Dassie grew up in a garden filled with the smell and taste of small sweet Catawba grapes, which grew in Germiston. She lived her last years in the beautiful home that she designed and built entirely under her direction in a tropical garden in Caesaria.
She nurtured two talented children, Tali and Doron, who are now mature enough to live in the traditions she fostered for them. Dassie and Rodney grew in their good years of good marriage to become family and social icons.
She died with dignity in the face of a terrible death sentence. Who would have expected anything else of her?
Her memory is blessed and is a blessing for all who knew her.
Colin and Penny Froman
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