It was a minute before Shabbos (Sabbath) candle lighting. Not a time when one expects to receive a phone call. But the Packters are used to this. They’re tzaddikim. Very unusual people . Always ready to help. And that means always. I began talking very fast as soon as they picked up.
Let me introduce myself. I am a dispatcher for Ezer Mizion’s Linked to Life, a service that provides emergency rides to hospitals, emergency delivery of vital meds etc etc etc. I rushed to tell them about a Haifa couple who were told less than an hour before candle lighting time that their daughter had to be rushed to Schneider’s Medical Center in Petach Tikva. They were being escorted by police and desperate to provide their daughter with her life-saving needs. I had just become aware of the situation. They themselves were probably not even aware that they were headed toward a Shabbos stay in the hospital without any Shabbos food. And that’s why I called the Packters.
Avi Packter said, “Sure. We’ll bring whatever they need.” He hung up the phone and relayed the message to Noa, his wife, as she was walking into the dining room to light candles. Right after she lit, Noa began to pack together food that she always kept on hand for emergencies such as this, together with plenty extras to show that someone cared. It was already Shabbos so she would walk. Knowing the comfort that her basket would bring made it lighter and lighter as she walked down this street and up that one on her way to Schneiders. Soon it was mission accomplished. Just a normal day in the life of an Ezer Mizion Linked to Life member.
Linked to Life is busy day and night with emergency calls of all types. Want to listen in?
We have a family from up North in Migdal Ha’emek with a six-month old baby hospitalized in Ichilov Hospital, Tel Aviv after a heart operation.The father is anchored at the baby’s bedside and does not get home at all. Can anyone help out with a stand-in who can take a shift so that the father can get home to be with the other children a bit?
An oncology patient needs a collar brace with the option of moving the head to the sides.
Are there any guest rooms available for weekdays in Jerusalem at a reasonable fee that a family could handle, especially since there is no way of knowing how long he will be hospitalized… (The patient is sedated and on a respirator.) The family is from the Jordan Valley.
Often it’s a call for some medically vital item that has to be transferred from Israel to the US or South America…or Russia… or Belgium… or Australia. Wherever you reside, if you’d like to join, SMS 011 972 52 580 8936.
