I remember when I was a Fellowship Student in Washington, DC getting my Masters in Business Administration.

I helped professors mark papers and with other work.

One teacher assigned their class a paper to write about their hero or one they admired most. Most wrote about their parents. Apparently a person honestly respects the good that their parents did for them.

A parent or grandparent. They are a special someone.

We have an innate sense of gratitude. We recognize the good they have done for us.

The Torah says to respect parents by not contradicting them or sitting in their seat. By listening to their requests.

One can never adequately repay their parents for all the good they provided.

When the time comes for them to retire, some send them to the old age home or hospital. Correct? Apparently each case must be judged separately. A competent Orthodox rabbi should be consulted. One should also consult one for medical questions – regarding stopping respirators and other life sustaining equipment.

If a parent passes along to the next world, many a time a person regrets things said or says “I wish I could have done more for them.”

The Torah has a solution that soothes the parent’s soul and the conscience of the child.

Reciting the mourners prayer – Kaddish in a quorum of 10 Jewish men – keeps the link between the parent and child.

Doing good deeds in memory of the departed also helps.

Assuring them a proper burial in a Jewish cemetery is part of the responsibilities of a Jewish child. Cremation is forbidden in Judaism.

The smart person tries to do as much as they can to respect the parent while they are alive.

A parent that has a child that does kindness and good for the world, is made proud of their child.

Our great sage, Rabbi Tarphon was exemplary in respecting his mother.

Once his mother was walking on a rainy day. Apparently, it was Shabbat and her sandal’s strap tore. Rabbi Tarphon, in order that his mother not walk in the wet mud put his hand on the ground to serve as a stepping stone for her steps, so that her feet wouldn’t get mired in mud.

When she told the Torah sages this, they replied that even if he did a hundred times more it wouldn’t be enough to properly repay his mother for all the good she did for him according to Torah.

We can always try our best.