Two IDF reservists fighting side by side as one, their souls intertwined, united in destroying a common enemy. The battlefield breeds deep friendship and they became as close as brothers.
Each was fighting another battle. Unknown to each other, this battle, too, they were fighting together.
P, a 23-year-old intelligence officer, had lost his mother five years ago. He understood what it means to lose someone you love. The void. The emptiness. The anguish. The agonizing pain. When asked to join the Ezer Mizion Bone Marrow Registry, he didn’t hesitate. He would do whatever he could to prevent another person experiencing that grief. It was not long before he received the call: You have been found to be a match for a patient. You can save his life. Full of gratitude for the opportunity, he happily donated stem cells for the unknown patient.
Moshe Steiner, had been diagnosed with MDS syndrome, a condition that puts patients at high risk of developing acute leukemia. Doctors told him that he urgently needed a stem cell transplant, and a matching stem cell donor was found through Ezer Mizion’s International Bone Marrow Registry. “I was in life-threatening danger,” Moshe recalled. “When I was told a stem cell donor had been found, it was an immense relief for me and my family.” His son, Elyassaf, a 40 year old school principal, found it so difficult fighting in Gaza, so far from his family, all the while knowing his father was fighting a battle for Life.
The transplant was a success and Moshe is doing well. It was time to schedule a meeting that he and his family had been dreaming of for the past year. They would meet the donor. That selfless person who gave of his time to help someone he had never met.
The day drew close. The excitement was at its peak. Preparations were complete and they walked in. A family. Whole. Complete. And so utterly grateful.
And then he walked in. The donor. The stranger they had waited a year to meet. But he was no stranger. He was a brother. A relationship forged in Gaza as they fought side by side.
“It’s you!” their stunned faces said. And then, like two magnets, they fell into each other’s arms.
His voice trembled with emotion as he uttered in disbelief, “A person who stood with me, fought alongside me, unknowingly gave me the greatest gift—a second chance for my
father.”
It was a breathtaking moment—two soldiers deeply bound by cords forged on the battlefield, their being now fused as one. The lifeblood of P. having given Life to the parent of his soulmate.
