160517
17th
May, 2016
Yesterday
was a tough day! Talia and Ayalas school bus was in an accident, it spun
several times and turned over completely after the driver veered to avoid another
accident right in front of them. An idiot driver thought she could turn into a side
road across the traffic, travelling fast.
16
little girls found themselves and their school bags flying against the side of
the bus. Talia thought she smelled smoke so quickly managed to get most of the
girls out through the broken back window and passersby stopped to help the
others out. Everyone and gave their phones to the girls to call home -
including cars with Palestinian licences whose drivers went out of his way to
help them. In Israel, no-one simply walks by, the girls remember a huge wave of
people coming to see how they were and gently seating them at the side of the
road until the ambulances and first responders arrived.
Rachel raced
to the scene almost immediately but couldn't get to the hospital when the
ambulances left because all traffic was diverted due to the accident. She called me and of
course I raced to the Shaare Zedek Hospital, just 10 minutes from our home.
The children
were all in shock. Some of the mothers had not yet arrived and the girls saw a
familiar face in me. Ayala had a bump on
her forehead and Talia's shoulder and arm hurt - but by some miracle, none of
the children was seriously hurt but all were silently traumatized, except Talia
who gave a full description of exactly what happened. Ayala and Talias Auntie
Shiran came too – so that we had one on one with the girls until Rachel could
get there.
Shaare
Zedek Hospital was incredible, over and above the call of duty. Not only the
incredibly efficient and thoughtful medical staff who gathered the girls after
triage, taking them to paediatric ER ensuring they were all together in one
place. The social worker spoke to them, brought in the clowns (literally), medical
clowns who helped them through their trauma, teasing, blowing balloons, tricks
and gifts, the nurses brought them all gifts from a special cupboard of
surprises, age appropriate; their headmistress, school supervisor, hospital
social worker, school social worker, senior and incredibly patient junior
doctors came to check on the girls. In fact the hospital social worker took them
to the petting zoo up on the main children's ward, to break the tension before
they were examined again.
The
parents were also cared for and given hospital food to sustain them and a lot
of love from the staff.
Talia
received the recognition she deserved, her quick thinking was exceptional for a
9 year old. Both girls are now home, sore and bruised but OK. Rachel, who finally managed to get to the
hospital after about an hour, is my heroine. She kept her head, asked the right
questions and eased the other mothers. Big brother Yosef was so worried that
Saba Zvi went to get him from school and brought him to Shaare Zedek to put his
mind at rest.
Shaare
Zedek Paediatric ER - I cannot imagine any other hospital going all the way to ease
the pain of 16 little girls the way they did.
This
morning all 16 girls went to school and they were greeted with a room full of
balloons and treats, the teachers all came to hug them and the other girls in
the school waved and cheered. Good will can turn a trauma into a good
experience, but both of the girls are in pain today as their bruises come out. Rachel
is watching them carefully – an amazing Mother.
Independence
Day
came and went with a wonderful party in Ramat HaSharon and a beach birthday
party for Gili. Friday night we had dinner with Sam and Debbie Bettsak
at the Dan Panorama here in Jerusalem. It is always good to catch up with the
Bettsaks, great friends.
I
thought you may like some general statistics and wonderful videos about a 68 year
old lady, more beautiful every year – Israel of course!!!
68
Reasons to love Israel http://forward.com/opinion/
68 More
things I love about Israel http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/68-more-things-i-love-about-israel/
68
Things you didn't know about Israel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3wmT2wH690
Finally
the somewhat dry but very accurate statistics of Israel at 68 http://mfa.gov.il/MFA/AboutIsrael/Spotlight/Pages/Israel-at-68-A-statistical-glimpse.aspx
May 19th
sees the 100th anniversary of the Sykes Picot agreement. The entire
region was divvied up according to interests by Britain and France, with Italy
and Russia taking a minor role, basically cutting Germany out of the equation As
a result of the division of said countries, with no consideration of ethnic or
national divisions, we have had incessant wars, displacement, extremism and
revolutions ever since. http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/sykes_pico.html
I am usually the optimist - I tend to love everyone but something made me furious this
week.
A religious friend was walking on the Tel Aviv beachfront with her sister when suddenly a lunatic began throwing bottles and other things at them yelling (in an American accent) "I love to see Harediot run" Nobody helped them - no-one, not a soul despite the fact that the promenade was full.
I am angry at the lunatic but much angrier at all the Tel Avivim who allowed it to pass............ shame on them. All it takes for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing.
A religious friend was walking on the Tel Aviv beachfront with her sister when suddenly a lunatic began throwing bottles and other things at them yelling (in an American accent) "I love to see Harediot run" Nobody helped them - no-one, not a soul despite the fact that the promenade was full.
I am angry at the lunatic but much angrier at all the Tel Avivim who allowed it to pass............ shame on them. All it takes for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing.
My mind
is still on my grand-daughters – I'm sorry if I haven't written in a well constructed
manner but I think I am also a little traumatized!
Let's
go straight to music
The
first song is a beautiful melody sung by Zvi's choir Hakol Yachassi – lyrics by
Eli Yaron (Ladino) Music by Adi Hayat; dancer Liron Mussachi and violin solo
Alexandra Denissov
Israel Mio – My Israel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oZfs4WjDpU
Arik
Einstein (z"l) wrote Ani ve Ata – You and Me, about changing the world
together, no matter what anyone says https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUgCUgDUBmA&list=PL1WC0PL2DeIVjVwcYgdtTe80V-UhLomRk&index=2
So
friends, let you and me change our world. You know we can do it one person at a
time. Don't leave anything to the politicians and diplomats, their self-interest
is evident and their populism and desire for control obvious in every move. The
quiet revolution is the effective one, the war of words, the determined letter
writing, the talking to journalists, the simple act of standing up to be
counted.
Miracles
happen. They did for our family yesterday.
With
love
Sheila
PS I
will try to give you a Shabbat Shalom but felt the need to tell you about
yesterday too.
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