A Week Away from Home

My dear, dear friend came to Israel to visit me!

I feel so special and loved.

Her husband, who is also a close friend of ours, could not get away now, so her mother decided to accompany her for this visit. I must admit that I also love my friend's mother, who has always been so warm and embracing. In addtion to being a very intelligent and interesting woman, she has also been very generous and loving to me. Sometimes, I have to stop myself from calling her “mom.”

While they were here, I stayed with them at the hotel.  What a treat!  We hung out all day, talking and spending time together!

The dynamic with the three of us was very good.  We found the right balance between doing things all together and doing things separately. My friend's mom was totally understanding about my friend's and my need to spend some time on our own. Though, almost every morning, I ended up spending time alone with my friend's mother, because my friend needed to sleep even more than I did!  There were also a few things that I did on my own (like attending a friend's wedidng), so my friend and her mom also had some time to spend together, just the two of them.

My friend and her mom took two rooms at a Jerusalem hotel and I stayed with my friend in her room. It was so much fun, like going on vacation without any of the headaches. I didn't even have to leave town.

Since our only goal was to spend time together, we did not “overschedule” our time. We took each day “b'easy.”  (I bet even you non-hebrew speakers can figure this translation out! We just....“took it easy”)

My friend and I both brought some of our favorite games to play.  We also spent several afternoons just hanging out in the pool, treading water or lazing about, hanging onto the wall or sitting on the steps. Being in the water is very pleasant for me. My back always feels better in the water, without any weight on my skeleton.

For the most part, God has been pretty good to me regarding pain. I still hurt a lot, but most of the time the pain was managable and I enjoyed the time with my friend.

I felt really relieved. When she came, I was still pretty much at the peak of my suffering, but the pain patch seemed to be helping and as long as I remembered to treat the breakthrough pain with Percocet, I felt ok.
Before we knew it, the days flew by and her trip came to an end.

We talk on the phone almost every day, but that does not compare to actually being able to see each other!

Before she and her family moved to the US, we used to live a few blocks away from each other and get together several times a week.

I miss her so much!!



Please daven (or send happy, healing thoughts) for RivkA bat Teirtzel. With love and optimism, RivkA