In Loving Memory of Angel Rothamel, aka the "A" of author AJ Kelton

Ha-makom y’nachem et-chem b-tokh sh’ar avay-lay tzi-yon vi-rusha-la-yim 
"May the Almighty comfort you together with all the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem."

Our community has experienced a loss and it pains me to be writing this post right now. Angel Rothamel, aka the "A" of author AJ Kelton passed away yesterday. She was in the hospital with pneumonia and started to experience complications which resulted in kidney failure, respiratory troubles, and heart problems. She was then put into a medically induced coma and was receiving dialysis. At one point she appeared to be doing better but unfortunately she slipped away from us.

While our community is rocked by the loss of Angel, and as we all mourn her (I know that I am gripped with sadness. I met her and spent time getting to know her. She was a complete sweetheart, funny, and extremely humble. She was excited about her book cover from MLR and kept gushing about it. She was adorable.), I want to encourage all of those who knew her or who met her to think of her smile, her laughter and a happy time with her, so that as she crosses over into the Great Beyond, as she goes into Paradise and eternity, she will be surrounded by positive energy, well wishes, happy memories, and all of our love and smiles.

Please keep Angel's family and her best friend and writing partner, Rider Jacobs, in your thoughts and prayers as they go through this difficult time.


And now, even though I know that not all of you are Jewish, or religious I hope that you will take the time and have a moment of silence with me for Angel as I remember her with the Kel Maleh Rachamim, which, though it is not perfect in its expression, or its translation into English, still expresses the sentiment of my desire for her to rest in peace, that her soul will shine forever and that everything she did here on Earth, all the people she touched, friends she made and lives she brightened will be remembered even as she goes on into eternity.

I never got a chance to tell Angel what her Hebrew name would be and I've spent the last few hours, making sure I had the right one. So Angel, honey, your Hebrew name is: Arella . So even with the Hebrew name you still could have been the "A" in AJ Kelton:


El malei rachamim sho-khein bam’romim, ham-tzei m’nuchah
n’khonah tachat kanfei ha-sh’khinah, b-ma’alot k’doshim u-t’horim
k-zohar ha-rakia maz’hirim, et nish’mat Arella bat
Arella she-halchah l’olamah, b-gan
eiden t’hei m’nuchatah. Ana, ba-al ha-rachamim, ha-sti’reha b-seiter k-nafekha l-olamim, u-tz’ror bitz’ror
ha-chayim et nishmatah, Adonai hu nachalatah, v’tanu-ach b-shalom al mishkavah, v-nomar amen.



Translation:

Exalted, compassionate G-d, grant perfect peace, in Your
sheltering Presence, among the holy and the pure who shine in
the brightness of the firmament, to the soul of our dear Angel
who has gone to her eternal rest. G-d of compassion,
remember all her worthy deeds in the land of the living. May
her soul be bound up in the bond of everlasting life. May
G-d be her inheritance. May she rest in peace. And let
us answer: Amen.