When I was 8 years old, I met one of the most important people in my life.  My mother was attending college at Incarnate Word College and taking further education for her teaching career.  It was there that she met Sid.
A while after they met, we were invited to watch him run a race.  My brother Will and I were so excited watching the race that we decided we wanted to run too.  My mom explained that we could not run a race without training.  The very next day we started running and ran 5 miles.
Over the years, we ran many races and even ran the marathon multiple times.  My brother was an amazing runner and ran the marathon in 3:10 at a young age.  My marathon times as a child were more in the 4 hour range.
We would often run with Sid for our long distance runs.  Sometimes Walter Stoneham would run with us.  Raymund Russell Park was a frequent starting point and we would run up to Fair Oaks Parkway and back which was about 14 miles.  In those days, it was almost completely empty and not full of houses and shopping centers like it is now.
Fort Sam was still open and we would run around the parade grounds which was a distance of about 4 miles.  When Will and I were children, Sid probably found me annoying.  Despite the fact that we were running, I would never shut up and wanted to talk about anything and everything for hours.
We would travel to marathons in different cities.  On one trip to the Dallas White Rock marathon, my grandparents, mother, brother, Sid and I were all packed in one car.  Honestly, I’m not sure how we all fit in one car.  Regardless, they were serving chili and the result was an extremely smelly ride back home from Dallas.
Sid’s father Hyman became afflicted with Alzheimer’s and needed care.  My mom volunteered to help take care of him.  He was the kindest man.  Multilingual, he would switch between several languages with ease and with Alzheimer’s the change was frequent.  Sid would sing to his father which made him smile and sing along.
The day John Lennon died, we were at Sid’s apartment.  My mother’s car caught fire in the parking lot and the firemen were there to put it out when the news came on the radio.  My mother is not a very emotional person, but I remember her being visibly upset.   Being me, I thought that Jack Lemon had died and remarked that I really enjoyed him in “Some Like It Hot”.
As a teenager, Sid asked me to come over.  He showed me the backyard and said I would pull the weeds from one corner to the other for a penny apiece.  That summer, I started pulling and it took almost the entire summer to pull them.  
After that, Sid and I worked together in the yard on a regular basis.  We would trim trees and rake for $2 an hour.  It was hot, itchy work.  Throughout high school, I continued to work for Sid doing yardwork.  Admittedly, sometimes I didn’t want to do it because it was hard work.  I would make excuses and avoid going every so often, but then I would go back because I could not stand the thought of making Sid sad and enjoyed working with him.
Sid was my driver’s ed teacher.  Because we knew each other so well, once, we got into an argument during a driving lesson.  “If you don’t do what I say, you will spend the entire lesson in the parking lot,” Sid told me.  “Fine!” teenage me replied.  There was another student in the backseat who looked petrified.  He had no idea that Sid and I knew each other from outside the driving school.  When it was his turn to drive, Sid calmly walked him through the steps.
Another girl in my driving class said, “This teacher is kind of a bleep.”  I think she was trying to be cool or something, but that made me furious!  “Well maybe if you weren’t such a bleep, he wouldn’t be,” I half shouted at her.  She looked shocked and weirdly after that she and I became friends.
In my 20s, Sid and I continued to run together.  We would often meet at Ft Sam early in the morning and jog around the parade grounds.  Now that I was older, I primarily listened.  Sid would tell me about funeral rituals and dietary rules and the reasons behind them.  Even when it was 25 degrees, we showed up at 5 am and ran.
One day he told me why running was so important.  “You know Bess, there will be times in your life when you will lose things.  It will hurt so much, but if you have something like running that is a constant, then it will help you get through it.”  Those words mean so much this week.
Sid really enjoyed hills.  One day I decided to take him to a hill over by the Alamo Heights Swimming Pool.  It was too much.  The hill was too steep and Sid never wanted to run that hill again.  In fact, we did not run hills again for a while after that encounter.
Sid attended my first wedding.  After years of joking with me about “when I was going to set the date” with various boyfriends, I was actually getting married.
At the time I was working at the UT Health Science Center.  Sid would meet me at the track at lunchtime and we would run a few miles.  Sometimes we would meet again after work.
My mother started working at Tafolla which is where Sid worked for many years.  There they met additional friends through work like Amanda Hinojosa, Margaret Nichols and Beatrice Devine.
In 1999, I moved to Houston to work for Baylor College of Medicine and stayed for 4 years.  When we moved back to San Antonio, my son was born.  
Sid also came to my wedding to Lawrence.  He was there for so many important moments in my life.
Eventually, we started going back to the Wednesday night runs in Brackenridge Park.  Sid would run every week and we would go to watch.  When I met and married Lawrence, he would go with us to watch.
At one of these events, Sid referred to my mother as the Silver Fox.  It was so hilarious, that it still makes me laugh today.  As a former coach, Sid often gave people nicknames.
Sid had a birthday party at the race one week.  It was a really happy day and he even hired a clown to make balloons for the children.  His nephew Mark was there and we all got t-shirts with “Sid Run” printed on the shoulder.
Eventually, Sid had to give up running and lived alone.  His cousin Yehuda needed a car and my mom was no longer driving so we sold him her car.  Meeting Yehuda allowed me to have someone to contact if we were not able to contact Sid.  It was a relief because I always worried how we would know if something went wrong.
We visited Sid some and I tried to call every week.  Thankfully, Yehuda would remind me to call on Fridays.  Sid would ask Lawrence about MI5 and finally migrated to asking him about cycling instead.  
Yesterday, I got the call from Yehuda that I had dreaded for years.  Sid had passed.  He has been a constant in my life for most of my life and it will never be the same.

Sid,  I will always remember the countless trips you made to my door steps to bring me fresh bagels every week . Thank you. Also for warning me not to mow the lawn barefoot! I have purchased a pair of boots strictly for cutting the grass. But I don't think I will ever wear them because I'm afraid that I will stop hearing your voice! Say hello to Maury. Tell him the puppies miss his visits.

So sad to hear of the passing of our beloved neighbor.  Mollye and Sidney were such great neighbors. Our deepest sympathies to your family.  Sidney definitely was a distinguished individual - always looking for newspaper articles for his driving class.  Miss him greatly. Gene & Rana Camargo

I am so sorry for your loss, Ive known Sid for forty three years, we met at the Sunken Garden here in San Antonio while training to run the San Las Antonio Las Colonias Marathon. We ran several Marathons together, and I went to  the Temple he attended several times. He was a good man and will be missed by all the runners that knew him. May he rest in peace.                 Gilbert Barrera

OBITUARY

Sidney Sablow

October 14, 1937 – May 16, 2024

Porter Loring Mortuary - McCullough

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