{"id":341,"date":"2013-03-13T13:53:31","date_gmt":"2013-03-13T17:53:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ezermizionusa.org\/blog\/?p=341"},"modified":"2013-09-12T15:43:36","modified_gmt":"2013-09-12T19:43:36","slug":"next-year-a-pony-tail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/next-year-a-pony-tail\/","title":{"rendered":"Next Year: A Pony Tail"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"prYael\u2019s Birthday Wish<\/p>\n

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It wasn\u2019t a new game or a trip to the zoo. Yael\u2019s birthday wish was much simpler than that but oh so hard to achieve. Yael just wanted to be normal like every other seven-year-old. She wanted to go to school and learn how to read. She wanted to sit in a class with other girls, not spend her time in the oncology pediatric ward where scary things happen. Yael had been in first grade-for two days-when she had been diagnosed with cancer. She had had a tiny, tiny taste of normalcy and craved \u00a0more.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Yael\u2019s mornings were spent receiving treatment and her afternoons enjoying the \u2018fun stuff\u2019 which is what the kids call professional therapy at Ezer Mizion. Some days\u00a0 it may be sand play or a story about Shimshie, the Lion, who got sick. Other days, she did crafts or played with the animals at Ezer Mizion\u2019s petting zoo-all under the guidance of therapists whom Yael thought of as older friends.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

And now it was her birthday and a party was in the offing. Ezer Mizion coordinated the whole event including a popular children\u2019s entertainer, Tal Moseri, as MC. Her Ezer Mizion friends came but Yael wanted more. \u201cMommy, can we invite my friends from school? Please?! Please?!\u201d And so Ezer Mizion added another twenty little girls\u00a0\u00a0 to the guest list.\u00a0 Every party has its bumps and Yael\u2019s was no exception. But never has there been a party when, as part of the games, the birthday girl would be asked to write the names of the guests and be unable to. You see, Yael\u2019s didn\u2019t know her friends\u2019 names. Two days several months ago is not enough\u00a0 time to learn everyone\u2019s names . Yael didn\u2019t know her guests\u2019 names but she was very happy.\u00a0 \u00a0\u201cI had regular kids at my party, Mommy. Plain old regular kids.\u201d For one afternoon, Yael could pretend she was normal, just like everyone else.\u00a0\u00a0 And pretend she did. They played Simple Simon. The birthday girl called out the commands: \u201cPut your hand on your hair,\u201d she said, demonstrating with a grin as she placed her own hand on her non-existent hair.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Yael\u2019s party is over. Her \u2018regular\u2019 friends have gone back to their world and Yael is, unfortunately, back as a resident of a scary world that no seven year old should ever know about. As the guests left and\u00a0 balloons were taken down, Yael\u2019s birthday wish turned into a prayer.\u00a0 May her eighth birthday party be celebrated with her friends in the classroom as she\u00a0 proudly sports a pretty clip around her long pony tail.<\/p>\n

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