But while the origin of this story is very personal and has its roots in my family, making a book requires a lot of people. I have never worked harder on a project to get it just right, so please bear with me.

This incarnation started at the Yiddish Book Center at the Tent: Creative Writing conference I attended back in 2018. Huge thanks to fellow attendees and awesome authors in their own right who read and critiqued the opening pages: Danielle Joseph, Barbara Bietz, Yael Mermelstein, Elie Lichtschein, Evelyn Krieger and Brianna Sayres. Also, thank you to our workshop leader, Kendra Levin, whose words of encouragement and critique were exactly what I needed to carve up the initial pages and get on the right track.

A big thank-you to the amazing people at PJ Library and PJ Our Way, who sponsored Tent and provided a wonderful experience for us all—what an honor to be included. Thank you to Harold Grinspoon and Diane Troderman for making it possible and for opening your home to us for an experience I will truly never forget.

Once the book was drafted, many people read this book along the way: Danielle Joseph and Barbara Bietz (both who read again!), Terry Lynn Johnson, Helaine Becker, Natalie Hyde and Lisa McMann. Your feedback and cheerleading were invaluable and very much appreciated.

For the finer details, thank you again to my dad, Dan Levy. Not only were you my inspiration, but you were also my funeral expert, one willing to read multiple drafts. I did try to be as accurate as possible with the details in this book, but any persisting errors are my own.

Thank you to Rabbi Yonah Lavery-Yisraeli for assisting me with advice about sacred texts.

The Ontario Arts Council gets big kudos for its financial support of this project through Recommender Grants. Many authors would not be able to make their works without its generous support. Thank you to the OAC for recognizing the value of art and artists.

And now for my publishing family—and yes, after this many books, it does feel like a family. A big thank-you to Andrew Wooldridge for heading up the team and sticking it out through even the most challenging times. Hopefully by the time this book is out, 2020 is a very distant memory.

To Olivia, who isn’t just a hardworking marketing partner but also came up with the amazing and perfect title for this book. Nailed it!

To the rest of the Orca family pod: Ruth, Kennedy, Susan, Leslie, Ella, Mark, Vivian, Terri and everyone else who had a hand in making this book, I’m toasting you around the virtual dinner table.

A big thank you to Rachel Page, who worked tirelessly to get this cover just right. Creating cover art to represent a tween book about funerals must have been a daunting task, but you nailed it.

And to my editor, Tanya, the best sister-editor an author could ask for. My warmest and most heartfelt thanks for championing this book and me again. You aren’t just a great editor but a very fine human being who gets me 99.9 percent of the time, which leaves very little room for meanness.