{"id":2090,"date":"2014-01-22T14:57:05","date_gmt":"2014-01-22T19:57:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ezermizionusa.org\/blog\/?p=2090"},"modified":"2014-05-28T10:16:10","modified_gmt":"2014-05-28T14:16:10","slug":"mumbai-memories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/mumbai-memories\/","title":{"rendered":"Memories of Horror"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s all about giving back, says Adva Anter, giving to others like so many gave to us. That\u2019s why I enlisted. I want to help my country. My brothers had wanted to do that also and now I\u2019m taking their place. I hope they\u2019re proud of me, their little sister. They would want me to help so that what happened to them would not happen to others. \"pr<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n


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Newly enlisted in the IDF, Adva recalls memories that she would rather forget. \u201cIt was going to be such a fun trip. What a Chanukah present! \u00a0The family would be going to Mumbai, the first family trip out of the country. We arrived at the hotel full of excitement. My father wanted to rest up after the trip but my mother wanted a cup of coffee. I accompanied her to the receptionist desk and my two brothers, Dvir (15), Noy (12) were watching a show in the lobby. I was eight and all was well in my young world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then it happened.<\/p>\n

A jeep burst through the iron barrier at the entrance to the hotel and blew up at the doorway. Two deafening explosions were heard and fifteen people were killed instantly. Among the dead were three Israelis, two of them Adva\u2019s older brothers. The dream vacation had turned into a nightmare.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember black and a lot of screaming, but nothing more,\u201d Adva shivers as she relates the story. \u201cI must have fallen down, I felt as if something heavy was weighing on me. Then there was a second explosion. Everything in the hotel was made of wood and caught fire. Everything was burned.\u201d<\/p>\n

At that moment, Adva was transformed from an 8-1\/2-year-old-child to a 20-year-old adult,<\/p>\n

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After the first explosion, her mother, Orah, ran to find her sons. \u201cI was wounded, but I went to find Dvir and Noy,\u201d she says. \u201cI told Adva to stay on the floor, curled up, and not get up. Then I saw them and I knew. I don\u2019t think that anyone ever told Adva in so many words that her brothers were killed. She saw the explosion herself and understood.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adva was seriously hurt. Her body was covered with burns and shrapnel wounds, and she lost some of her toes. Her mother was also seriously injured and to this day, she remains disabled in one leg. The two had to undergo skin grafts and extended rehabilitation, Adva in Schneider Children\u2019s Hospital and Orah in Beilinson. \u201c<\/p>\n

Rami, Adva\u2019s father, had the hardest time dealing with the situation. As the only one unharmed, he had to run from one hospital to the other, caring for his injured, remaining family members, while trying to be strong and not show how broken he felt at the loss of his two sons.<\/p>\n

We had arrived back in Israel. A broken family. Lost. Bewildered. Traumatized.<\/p>\n

But not alone.<\/p>\n

Ezer Mizion was holding our hand and offering help before we even realized we needed it. We met them at Beilinson Hospital. We met them at Schneiders Hospital. Unable emotionally to return to his home and wanting to be near both hospitals to visit as often as possible, my father was offered a suite at Ezer Mizion\u2019s Oranit-Donald Berman Rehabilitation Center. He had a place to stay but so much more than that. There were hot meals either at Oranit or delivered to him at both hospitals. There were snacks accompanied by hot coffee, sandwiches and, so very important, there were people. The people at Ezer Mizion understood and they really cared.\u00a0 Did he need a ride somewhere? A meal at the bedside of one of the patients while he waited days for a tiny sign of improvement? Medical equipment for one of us after our release?\u00a0\u00a0 A knowledgeable professional to advise him on the myriad of details that were now part of his daily life? Someone to do the housework after our treatments were over and we rented an apartment,, improved but still broken, both in body and spirit?\u00a0 Someone to confide in-really confide in-someone who could empathize? Someone we could trust?<\/p>\n

When my mother and I were released to continue our treatments on an out-patient basis, we joined my father at Ezer Mizion. That\u2019s when we saw firsthand what my father had told us about while we lay in the hospital. Ezer Mizion was there for us, like a loving family. There were no nine-to-five hours, no\u00a0 \u2018Sorry we cannot take your call now. Please leave a message\u2026\u2019. They embraced us and gave of themselves, with compassion and with professionalism, fulfilling all our needs.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s ten years later. Payback time. I want to give like Ezer Mizion gave so much to my family.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I think that because of what I went through, serving in a combat unit as a battlefield medic, as far as I was concerned, was a given. IDF forces were the ones to come rescue us in the attack. I want to do everything I can so that what happened to me won\u2019t happen to other people living here in Israel. I\u2019m basically doing what Dvir and Noy wanted to and weren\u2019t given the chance \u2013 to serve in the IDF. Noy always said that he wanted to be an Air Force pilot, and Dvir, I\u2019m sure, would have gone into the Intelligence forces. He was a real genius. So I\u2019m doing it for them, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

From Adva\u2019s point of view, she is making a dream come true. But how do parents, who lost two of their children, react when their one remaining daughter asks their permission to enlist in a combat unit? It isn\u2019t hard to imagine\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cShe started talking about a combat unit back in junior high,\u201d the mother related. \u201cWe thought she\u2019d get over it, but she didn\u2019t. In high school, her dream just intensified, and gradually, we began to make peace with it, even though we always hoped that in the end, she would drop the idea.<\/p>\n

At the swearing-in ceremony at the end of basic training, I couldn\u2019t help thinking of her brothers. I could picture them at my side, cheering on their younger sister. Yes, they would be proud of her and, in spite of my fears, I am, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

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