Seven, Thirty, Twelve
Or, I found this amazing Jewish!starks headcannon by @jewishstarks and broke my radio silence on this site by writing a shitty fanfic. I have a lot of feels about this family.Ā
Ā In Judaism, death is not a tragedy, even when it occurs early in life or through unfortunate circumstances. Death is a natural process. Our deaths, like our lives, have meaning and are all part of G-d's plan. In addition, we have a firm belief in an afterlife, a world to come, where those who have lived a worthy life will be rewarded.
Ā Ā Seven
The first day it rains, as if the heavens mourn with them.
Ā Robb stutters over the Kaddish, the unfamiliar Aramaic rolling awkwardly off his tongue. No one comments. A fifteen year old should not know how to say Kaddish. By the seventh day he knows it by heart.
Ā Jon doesn't sit shiva, he can't, heās just a nephew, only a son can sit shiva ( what about good as a son? What about the only father Iāve ever known?) the law doesn't care. He says Kaddish anyway.
Ā Sansa distantly wonders how she can care about her appearance right now,(tear stained face, no makeup, no showering all week, Same clothes) staring at the rip in her shirt, the one she did herself, Ā the one sheāll have to look at all week.
Ā Arya has friends. lots of friends. They crowd around her in her grief but they fade to meaningless noise because her life is over (sheās never felt more alone, not ever)
Ā Bran sits listlessly on his uncomfortable chair because he can't get up, not even if his legs worked, and for once his family understands how he feels not being able to get up and walk to the kitchen for a bagel. The thought gives him no pleasure.
Ā Rickon is scared and confused (whereās papa i want papa when is he coming home) and he doesn't want to sit and listen to people talk and give him food all day (Why isn't he coming home) and he cries and throws fits but it doesn't work (Why did you leave us?)
Ā The seventh day the sun breaks through the clouds, watching the starks get up and go outside for the first time in seven days. (Where do we go from here?)
Ā Thirty
Ā She watches her sons say the prayer she doesn't understand for a month. She watches her children laugh and fight and grieve and she wonders why she can't, why all she can do is bury herself in preparations for the gravestone ( Beloved father and husband, a pillar of his community, a man of piety and charity taken to soon may his memory be a blessing) and he was her partner, her rock for so long that she doesn't know how to process existing without him ( we need to make decisions about Ā the unveiling,we need a minyan we need to make sure it's wheelchair accessible we need we need) We need Ned back. The thought hurts her more then she is willing to comprehend, so she buries it ruthlessly and goes to comfort her children(she needs to stop being so strong on of these days. Today will not be that day, it canāt)
Ā ××Ŗ××× × ×¤×©× ×¦×Ø××Ø× ×צר×ר ×××××
Ā Twelve
Ā The year goes by. They get used to not listening to music, to skipping out on dances and trips. Sansaās bat mitzvah comes and goes ( she sobbed hysterically when she remembered she was turning twelve- Father made it to Robās bar mitzvah, and Jonās, it's not fair ,It's not fair) Her dvar torah is one for the history books. ( She had started it with father, but he never got to finish it)
Ā The holidays go by, one by one,Shavuot and Tisha bāav and Ā Rosh hashanah and Yom Kippur ( haven't we atoned enough this year?) and Sukkot and they don't have to say yizkor, not yet not till next year and then it's pesach and the boys stop saying kaddish every day and then it's been a year .
Ā They take the day off and drive to the graveyard. They light a candle. They say kaddish for the elevation of his soul.
Ā Shiva. Shloshim. Yahrtzeit.
Seven. Thirty. Twelve.













