The view from my veranda

150330 Happy re-Birthday Kinneret Chaya

150330
30th of March 2015
The 30th of March is indelibly written in my memory, 30th of March 2002, the day that Kinneret Boosany became Kinneret Chaya.
I can never forget the telephone call from Orly as we returned from a visit in Tel Aviv “Sheila, Kinneret has been hurt in a terror attack in Tel Aviv and we don’t know if she will live” That day we went to get a special amulet from a famouis Rabbitsen, Amiad took it to the hospital and it was carefully placed under her pillow. A Rabbi came to visit and told her distraught family they should change her name from Kinneret to Kinneret Chaya – Kinneret lives, which considering the fact that the doctors gave her just a 2% chance of survival seemed almost cruel.
We discovered that a young Palestinian man came into the coffee shop where she was working to earn money while studying, asked for coffee and when she went behind the bar, he blew himself up. The explosion ignited the alcohol behind the bar where Kinneret stood. When Itzik Kohav, the paramedic, checked the coffee shop he thought it was clear until he saw something move. He found Kinneret under the bar, horribly burned. She stayed conscious on their ambulance journey trying to keep his spirits up.
Survive she did, her injuries beyond belief, 85% burns from 2nd degree up to 4th degree, her lungs damaged, her sight and hearing and I will never forget my first visit to see her tiny body lying on cushions of hospital green, despite the induced coma she opened her eyes and smiled at me.The next weeks and months were lost in deep concern and hospital visits. I wrote to you of her first food (a peeled grape) which she ate with delight of a gourmet meal; her first steps and her first shower, beyond any medical expectations, thanks to her incredible family who would not let her go and her own determination. Slowly she began to emerge from danger and into life. You responded with deep love which helped her on her way to recovery.
The years have passed and she began to gain confidence and her determination to be as normal as possible grew until the wonderful day when she met her Amir. Her wedding was joyous, her father, profoundly deaf for years, even played the trumpet again to the tears of all present. Today, as incredible as it sounds, Kinneret Chaya is a married lady with four beautiful children.
She grew from a truly beautiful but somewhat self involved girl into an equally beautiful, caring, kind, thoughtful religious woman whose very existence and joy in every moment is sufficient vengeance to allow her an inner peace that few achieve. Her scars are still apparent but her beauty shines through them.
Kinneret Chaya is everything that is good. She is an example to us all. She has no self-pity, she simply lives life and relishes every second as only one who has been to that awful place can understand.
Kinneret Chayas journey has been from a spoiled secular girl to a truly magnificent religious woman, a journey of pain and horror through to absolute serenity.
Happy re-birthday dearest woman. Thank you for being my friend Kinneret Chaya
Love to you all
Sheila

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