“They would have dinner together,” said Dr. Weiss, referring to that time as the Rebbe and the Rebbetzin’s “private tea party.”
Mrs. Carlebach was amazed that the Rebbetzin steadfastly waited up for the Rebbe.
“I don’t know how many wives would stay up [regularly] till 4:00 in the morning and wait for their husband to come home from [meetings] in order to ensure that he wouldn’t be eating by himself,” she said.
Those few involved in the Rebbe and the Rebbetzin’s medical care emphasized how each one tried to shield the other from painful news. They would also call doctors on each other’s behalf.
Excerpt from ‘The Life and Times of Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka Schneerson’ By Dovid Zaklikowski, chabad.org
“You know, my husband comes home very late,” Mrs. Gorlin-Lassner said the Rebbetzin told her at the end of their meeting (in the mid-1980s). “He sometimes comes home [at] two, three in the morning. And when he comes home, I am going to have so much to say to him” about the meeting.
“The Rebbetzin would always call my father on behalf of the Rebbe, and the Rebbe would always call my father on behalf of the Rebbetzin,” said Mrs. Shemtov. “Each one always called for the other.”
Hager said that she learned about the importance of human relationships from the Rebbetzin.
“Valuing people for what they are, not knocking them, building them up, trying to bring out the best in people, the positive thinking: those are all things that she lived by,” said Hager. “And that’s an example for us: looking at the glass being half-full, not half-empty.”
