Too Close to Home

Yesterday my wife and I had a bit of a respite. My son-in-law returned home for 48 hours to help with his kids who were sick from Gan. So while he was busy with his family, we picked up a cousin who came to Israel on a mission which she and some colleagues organized.

Our cousin is a world-renowned expert in her field of nephrology.  At a recent nephrology conference held within the last 101 days, she and her colleagues were lamenting the fact that the Israeli nephrologists were unable to attend the conference.  So this group decided to bring a mini version of the conference to Israel.

Anything precious in Israel, whether time, laughter, calm, especially these days, is fleeting.

We were enjoying a calm lunch and just catching up on family stuff when we got a call from Canada telling us that there was an attack in Raanana, and did we know if our family who lives there is safe.  Our cousin, who we were sitting with was moving to Raanana after her conference to spend time with her husband’s brother who lives in Raanana.

Within seconds we received a tearful message that they were on their way to Schneider Children’s Hospital where their 14-year-old son was being transported after being rammed by a car. At the hospital, we saw 6 other families whose boys were together coming home from school.

All the boys had to have surgery. In our case, Gilad had multiple fractures and glass lacerations over his torso, arms and legs. His surgery was successful.

That’s the physical part.

What’s next?