When the phone rang last night at about 2:15 a.m., a shudder immediately went through me because I knew what it must be. Sure enough, it was David's unit at Soroka Hospital telling me I needed to come. I immediately got up and set out to Be'er Sheva, knowing that David would almost certainly not still be alive when I got there (and he wasn't).
The drive in the night, though, was almost magical. As I pulled out of the gas station after filling up and turned toward the big kikar at the north end of town, I saw that the moon had just risen over the Jordanian mountains. I listened to piano music much of the way up, by Chopin and Beethoven. Just as I was crossing Nakhal Paran, the first movement of Beethoven's famous "Moonlight" Sonata was playing, one of David's favorites. You can believe that that made me cry! But it was a beautiful moment, as well.
I went first to the unit, of course, and saw that David had died. Then I had to go to the ER to process some paperwork (it would have been admissions, but they weren't open for another hour, so ER was able to do it). Then I had to arrange for an ambulance to bring David's body to Eilat for burial here (expensive but important -- luckily, burial is free here in Israel). I also had to physically identify his body in the morgue there. I ate breakfast at a restaurant on the hospital campus.
After everything was arranged, I headed back home. I had to take David's teudat zehut (national ID card) to the cemetery to make arrangements there for the funeral (tomorrow, 14 May 2015, at 5:30 p.m.).
Most of the rest of the day I spent reading and answering people's wonderful messages of support, on e-mail and on Facebook. I also went to one of our favorite restaurants for lunch, where the proprietors knew and loved David, and to a frozen yogurt stand that we often used to go to. In both cases, I told the owners about David's passing and about the funeral, and they were so supportive.
♥
ReplyDelete