{"id":7258,"date":"2024-11-20T12:07:26","date_gmt":"2024-11-20T17:07:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/?p=7258"},"modified":"2024-11-20T12:07:26","modified_gmt":"2024-11-20T17:07:26","slug":"a-battle-on-two-fronts-mali","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/a-battle-on-two-fronts-mali\/","title":{"rendered":"A Battle on Two Fronts: Mali"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Everyone at the Ezer Mizion Summer Retreat for Cancer Patients and their Families has a story. Last week we met a participant whose husband divorced her when she was diagnosed.  There was no husband to support her as she tried to raise her family, all the while undergoing a battle on two fronts, both cancer and the war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mali, however, is married but also without any support. Her husband simply fell apart. The arguments between them were continuous and she was considering untying the knot. Instead, she suggested he move back into their lovely home in Sderot and make it a hostel for soldiers.  \u201cUntil now, he was always there for me, so now, when he is crashing, I need to be there for him. He kept busy with the soldiers, made them barbecues in our house, went to work. Meanwhile, we gradually learned to speak to each other again.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mali, mother of three, had discovered two years ago that she had cancer. The war actually caught her when her hopes were high \u2013 after she\u2019d concluded a round of chemotherapy and was a week before the end of a series of radiation treatments. \u201cEven when they told me I was sick, I wasn\u2019t as frightened as I was on October 7th<\/sup>,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On October 7th<\/sup>, she was at the peak of her physical weakness, but she understood that she needed to gather strength in order to bolster the family. \u201cWhen you near the end of the treatments, it\u2019s most painful,\u201d she recalls. She had serious burns from the radiation, but for the sake of her three children, she displayed restraint. \u201cI decided that nothing hurts me, that I\u2019m not thinking about myself, that I want to radiate calmness to my children. As we trembled in the safe room, I told them \u2013 no phone calls, no television, no music. We are maintaining absolute silence. I explained to them that the security situation is frightening for us, too, but we\u2019ll get through it together.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For three days, the family remained in the Mamad (fortified room), in paralyzing fear. When they were rescued by security forces, the horrific sights were too much to take: Burned homes, shattered windows, blood that wasn\u2019t yet dry. \u201cWe went out to the car as we were \u2013 without extra clothing, without my wig, even without my medicines. We simply fled,\u201d she recalls. \u201cI said that I\u2019m leaving the house to whoever wants it: soldiers, policemen, rescue squads \u2013 let them use the house freely to refresh themselves. Later on, our house really did become a refreshment station. Every month, a different battalion used it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the Ezer Mizion retreat<\/a>, she says, she learned to let go. Her husband needed to go to his job after the first two days, but she remained there. \u201cFrom my point or view, the retreat produces strength. Afterwards, I take that strength to my children and into my life. The retreat restored my confidence that there is a good world out there, a beautiful life. And if I don\u2019t want to miss it, I have to fight for it. At the retreat, I received the tools I need for the battle and the power to use them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Everyone at the Ezer Mizion Summer Retreat for Cancer Patients and their Families has a story. Last week we met […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[1060,1022,1324,1884,1796,1867],"class_list":["post-7258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cancer-support-division","tag-battling-cancer","tag-cancer-patient","tag-cancer-patient-support-services","tag-cancer-retreat","tag-war-in-israel","tag-war-on-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7258"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7258\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7259,"href":"http:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7258\/revisions\/7259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}