Leah pulled her gently away, turning her by the shoulders so that she could look deeply into her eyes. “Chasya, look at me. Every day, you are getting bigger and bigger, and smarter and smarter, and more and more beautiful. Every day, you make me and your tateh so happy. Even if you hide, we’ll always be able to find you. Do you believe me?”

The child thought about it for a few moments, then nodded.

“And now I have a secret to tell you.”

Chasya looked up expectantly.

“It’s okay to feel sad, to miss your mameh. But it’s also okay to be happy. That’s what your mameh would have wanted for you. For all of you. To have fun! And you and I and your tateh and Cheeky and Shaindele and your big brothers are going to be a very happy family. We are going to be the kind of family your mameh would have wanted us to be. We are going to have a lot of fun together, every single day!”

Ever since that conversation, that had become her mantra, Leah thought. To have fun; to bring joy to the home she had moved into and to the motherless children under her care. She had never understood before how simple a mandate that was.

In the past, she’d always thought joy came after huge successes or immense expenses. But now she found it was at the end of a sugar cone or a lollipop, in front of the monkey cages in the zoo. It was sometimes just as simple as putting on music and dancing around the living room as the children whooped and danced around her.

She got into the habit of playing music for them right after their baths as they waited for their tateh to come home for dinner. First she used Yaakov’s ancient boom box, putting in outdated cassette tapes of young yeshiva boys singing liturgical songs. But one day, she simply connected her iPhone to the speakers on her computer, putting on her favorite playlist. The first song was Foo Fighters’ “Everlong”: If everything could ever feel this real forever, if anything could ever be this good again. And then the music just kept blasting out: oldies like the Beach Boys’ “Wouldn’t It Be Nice,” the Supremes’ “You Can’t Hurry Love,” Justin Timberlake’s “Can’t Stop the Feeling,” Avicii’s “Wake Me Up,” Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face,” Katy Perry’s “Hot N Cold.”