Airing dirty laundry at Superpharm

Here’s a little slice of Jerusalem life from the Superpharm:

A young woman covered in tattoos is arguing half in English and half in Hebrew on the phone with her husband

“But I’m doing my best!” she cries. “ he went to school, clean and happy and smiling. You didn’t even wake up until close to 2 PM so why are you complaining?”

With tears in her eyes, she gestures  broadly and  announces to everyone in line at the pharmacy: “ I think I’m getting divorced. My husband is telling me I’m a terrible mother because I let our child go to Gan with two clean socks that didn’t happen to match and not only that he just told me this in front of his family.”

A young Arab woman says “ a husband should never insult his wife in front of his mother”


A young Jewish woman says “that is 100% correct”

An old Israeli woman jumps in “you know,” she says “first of all I’m 78 years old and I’ve been married for over 50 years and I have a little life experience. Husbands should never insult their wives about trivial matters, and besides , everyone knows there is a gnome who lives in your washing machine who steals each matching sock. And Tupperware lids. Anyway, as long as the socks are clean, and the kid is happy, he’s great. And honestly, even if the socks are not 100% clean, but the kid is still happy then he’s also great.”

The pharmacist whose name tag read Mohammad says “look, we are in the middle of a war and children are dying in Israel and Gaza and Lebanon. There are worse things than socks that don’t match.”

A young man in a soldiers uniform with a yarmulke nods and says “this is true. God protect us all.”

Finally, an older woman with a hijab turns to the woman on the phone and says “listen – get divorced, habibti. I did it, I got divorced — and if I can, anyone can . Life is too short and precious to be with someone who gives you a hard time over something is silly as socks and doesn’t tell you how wonderful you are for trying your best. “

Everyone says “AMEN”

The woman resolutely hangs up the phone.

”Sorry for airing my dirty laundry,” she says in English.
“It isn’t dirty laundry,” Mohammad says. “The socks were clean!”

The woman dries her eyes, picks up her prescription, buys herself a pretty pink lipstick…

And walks out of superpharm with her head held high and a phalanx of caring new friends.