The story of Gizela - Afik Shiraz. Abinun Shmuel

our connection was thru letters. But the geographical distance did not fade for a moment in the great closeness that prevailed between us, and in addition, Samuel has stayed with her many times on vacations the summer, and won a great aunt who loved him very much.

In 1964, Shmuel graduated from high school and enlisted in the IDF. I was anxious about recruiting and was not quiet during his one and a half month term, but my fears dissipated when Samuel was assigned to serve in the recruitment bureau and slept at home most of the time. He was sometimes assigned to serve in the recruitment offices in Haifa or Tiberias, then lived at the soldier's house, and when he was stationed in Jerusalem he was with my brother-in-law, then I could sleep soundly. In September 1969, Samuel married Ella, and I felt I won a daughter. In December 1970, my first grandson, Dror, was born. In March 1973 Kfir was born and in March 1980 - Adi. The three grandchildren grew up and got married and today I have eight great- grandchildren. When I look about the beautiful family that I have set up through the ages I am filled with happiness and pride. In 1991 Leon became ill with cancer and died on April 18, 1992 and was buried in the "Yarkonim" cemetery. He was 78 at the time of his death. I could hardly mourn his passing because he passed away on Passover eve and we were forbidden by religion to sit on him the seven days. Adding to, the days were the terrible civil war that took place in Yugoslavia, and the week in which Leon died, my sister-in-law with her husband, Rosica and Sado Romano, their daughter and her husband with a little child, Matilda, Slobodan and Daniella Dannon, who escaped with the skin of their teeth - came to Israel and I had to take care for their most basic needs. They were located in an absorption center in Beer-Sheva, there they received a furnished room with bedding and a grant of NIS 1,000 per family. They came to the country in their own clothes, and those were winter clothes that did not fit to the Israeli climate. That's why I collected blankets from friends, clothes, towels, anything they could give me, and the items, that they delivered to me, I had to fix it - to pat or to shorten it, because I didn't want to give them the cloth with a hole or without a button. That's how I sat for hours in front of the sewing machine and repaired where needed, and the clothes I fixed and washed to deliver it clean. So I was busy over the top. I couldn't think of myself; I thought about them. People who heard about the case donated warmly; Everyone gave something: Pots, plates, everything they could give, and I collected everything and every weekend I went to Beer Sheva to give them the packages. Then they moved from Beer- Sheva to Kiryat Motzkin (north to Haifa) , and I would drive from my home in Jaffa, on line 18 to the Arlozorov train station (at Tel-Aviv north) and there take the train to Kiryat Motzkin. In those days I could still getting on the train despite the crutches, today I hardly can get into a private car. On these visits to Kiryat Motzkin I was staying with them from Friday to Saturday, and on Sunday accompanied them and helped as an interpreter where that was needed - Social Security or a doctor's appointment. Later, Salomon my cousin, Tilda's brother, also came to Israel with his wife and two children; they also lived in the same reception center in Beer-Sheva, so they had to be helped, too. Sometimes Salomon and his wife came to stay with me on Saturday without the children, and when they moved to the Hedera, I would go to Hedera and help with what I could. So I was preoccupied with worrying about them and had no time to be in mourning

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