Ezer Mizion

It feels good to give. Seeing the joy on another person’s face because of something that you did is an experience that cannot be defined. I know about that. I joined Ezer Mizion’s Linked to Life awhile back. L2L is a  WhatsApp group that can be called for rides, deliveries of vital supplies and a zillion other requests by people who are dealing with serious illness. I’ve given rides to many people. Sometimes it’s a young mother counting the seconds until she can be back at the bedside of her baby who is fighting for his life at the hospital. She had planned to go by bus – even though she is beyond exhausted – until someone mentioned that she should try calling Linked to Life. In a few minutes, I appear at her doorstep, ready to give her door-to-door service. The utter joy on her face is the ‘gas’ that keeps me going even though, shortly before the request call came in, I was ready to fall into bed myself. Then there was the time I answered a call to pick up a vital blood sample from the airport and bring it to a doctor. “I’ve got a ten-year-old child waiting at the hospital. This little tube of blood can save her life,” the doctor thanked me. I’m sure I don’t have to explain to you that those words made me feel seven feet tall.

But now I want to tell you about another ride to Tel HaShomer Hospital. This time I wasn’t the driver. This time I was the drivee.  A family member was ill and all of us rallied to take shifts. But normal responsibilities did not disappear. A full workday remained. Homework with kids etc. You all know the routine. And on top of it all, the shlep to the hospital via a couple of buses. Suddenly a precious Ezer Mizion volunteer appears. For him, too, it is the end/beginning/middle of a work day, but, with a big smile, he takes you to the hospital and back. Just like I never fully realized what I was doing, he cannot even imagine what a huge chessed he is doing with this “simple” ride.

I greet my relative and take care of his needs until he is ready for a nap. Then I wander around the hospital ward and notice a mother looking very frightened. When I ask her how I can help out, she explains that there is a special medication that she’d left at home. Quickly, I ‘flip to my other hat’. I send a message to the Linked to Life coordinator: Who can deliver a medicine from Bnei Brak to the hospital? Almost instantly, someone responds to fill her need.

The happiness, the emotion, and the berachot (blessings) that burst forth from that mother’s heart the moment the medicine arrived!

I meet here the wonderful Ezer Mizion volunteers who come to give out coffee, cake, and hot food to family members during the long, hard waiting time. When I ask them how they got here and how they are getting home, they answer proudly – “With the Linked to Life volunteers.”

Dear fellow Linked to Life members, you are an important and critical part of this remarkable chessed chain of Ezer Mizion.   At moments like these, I am prouder than ever to be a member of this holy group. In the hope and prayer that all of us should always be on the giving end – only.

Want to join Linked to Life? No matter where on the planet you live, you will be welcomed.