“Dad spoke with his eyes, and I saw the helplessness”

Yosef Harilker, 50, from Ashdod, died in Corona in October. He volunteered as a public messenger at the Magen Hassidim Synagogue in Ashdod. His family says that he still had time to pray with them on Rosh Hashanah in the synagogue, but then he learned that he needed to go into isolation. Shortly after being diagnosed positive for the virus his condition deteriorated. On Sukkot, after a few days in which he was anesthetized and resuscitated, he died at Sheba Hospital in Tel Hashomer.

Joseph was married and had three children. One of his daughters married exactly a year before he passed away. His family members say that “he was a person with a big, humble heart. He would love to help everyone, the smile would never leave his face. He never complained – neither about life nor about work. He was an inspiring and welcoming person. He “He liked to help everyone. In the synagogue, he was asked many questions about the customs, and he would answer everyone happily. He was happy in part.”

“He was a father who pushed his children forward and gave them self-confidence,” they say. “He demanded that his children make an effort and engage in studies and he would take care of everyone else. He would love to sing. They would call him ‘Minister of Joy’ in the synagogue, because with every joy he would enlighten everyone, happy and exciting until they burst into dance. He was optimistic and believed. ”

“His passing was a powerful boom in the synagogue because he was always guarded and careful,” they say. “In a synagogue there is now a hole, a huge space, but they try to keep his will, also regarding the instructions. Scatter prayers, divide them into several quorums, keep the prayer and keep the instructions.”

Dov Mazuz, 82, from Rishon Lezion, died last night (Saturday), after contracting corona two weeks ago. His daughter, Rina Pitzon, told Ynet about the difficult two weeks she and her family went through. “We hospitalized him six months ago in sheltered housing for the mentally debilitated, and he contracted Corona from one of the workers there,” she said. “They called us from the nursing home and told us that he and 15 other residents had contracted corona from the same worker. They transferred him to the corona ward elsewhere without his oxygen, and said he had no fever and no symptoms. After a few days he fell on his face and was injured. “Ichilov. Within a few days, his condition deteriorated, and he died on Saturday.”

“I saw him for the last time two weeks ago, and he will communicate with me,” says Pitzon. “I sat with him and he said to me, ‘Maybe take me home to you, do not leave me here.’ I was sure this was not a good time, because I thought the ward was guarding him and it was not right to take him out. When I went to see him in the Corona ward it was so awful – he was already He did not call, just talked to me with his eyes and they saw the helplessness on him. In a second he became a completely different person, it was so hard. On Thursday I saw him for the last time, he realized it was the end and wanted him disconnected from the ventilator. He did not want to live anymore “.

She said the vaccine might have saved her father. “There’s a big sense of failure,” she said. “Maybe he could have been vaccinated, and that would have prevented his infection. It happened exactly a week after the vaccinations started. How careful we were and how much we wanted to keep him so much. We have a lot of guilt about not taking him home to dine with him in his last moments.”

“Sometimes I would look at the numbers of the deceased, and I would say it could not be that it would reach us,” she added. “We need to take personal responsibility and follow the guidelines, because it hurts our environment. My hope is that maybe this month, when we finish the mourning, it will symbolize a new era – and maybe revenge for another world. I am optimistic.”

Hiriya Khaliliya, 80, from the town of Zemer, died three days ago from Corona. Now, the atmosphere in her family is very sad. Her son, Mazen Khaliliya, said that “mother was evacuated to Hillel Yaffe Hospital in Hadera about two and a half weeks ago to regulate her heartbeat, where she contracted the corona virus. Before she died she spoke and her health improved, but then there was regression – until she died.”

He added: “In the last few days my mother woke up and talked and was in good shape. She asked us a lot when she would come home, but did not fulfill her dream. She died in the hospital.”

“My mother used to infuse a special atmosphere in the house,” Mazen said. “My father, the grandchildren and the whole family were waiting for her and expected her to return safely. It hurts me very much that not everyone was able to attend her funeral.”

“We do not know how my mother became infected, but I call on everyone to keep the instructions – so that you do not lose the people closest to you,” Mazen concluded.

David encourages immediately Benjamin was 82 at the time of his death. His family says he was a strong, active and healthy person, apart from the dementia that began to develop in him about two years ago. His wife Hannah waited a long time for him to return to her from the hospital, but he never returned.

Encouraging an orphan from Yemen, he came to the transit camps and grew up in Moshav Heletz. He managed to start a family with eight children, managed the vineyard in the moshav and worked as the settlement’s secretary until he retired. His son, Yigal, says that his father “wanted us to have the best education. He was a leader and a public figure, who always helped others – and left it to the children. He was a hardworking man who worked hard from morning to evening, all to support us with dignity. “Despite the dementia, and even made sure to attend all the prayers in the minyan. That is what revived him.”

When he retired, Oded decided, together with his wife Hannah – whom he cared for due to her visual impairment – to move in with his children in Yad Binyamin. Throughout the corona period they took great care to maintain social distance. “They did not let anyone approach them at home for five months,” says Yigal. According to the family, everything deteriorated during the holidays, so Oded did not feel well due to the dementia – and they took him to Kaplan Hospital for treatment.

“He was released the next day, but contracted in Corona from a guy who was lying next to him in the hospital,” says Yigal. “When we took him back to the hospital we found out he was contagious. He was in the ward for three weeks, almost made it through – but unfortunately there was a deterioration over the weekend.” For three weeks Cheerleader lay in the corona ward at the hospital, when only one of his sons could visit him – and said that all this time his father looked very sad.

“He went to the hospital for treatment and eventually got rid of Corona,” Yigal said. “He was 82 but perfectly healthy. He was active all the time, caring for my mother for all the years she was blind. We could barely say goodbye to him. My mother is still waiting for him to come back, and not digesting it.”

David Moeded was the first person to die of coronation in the Nahal Sorek Regional Council. Friends and family members say he was “very much loved by the public and cared for the welfare of the public. He helped the weak and took care to help them.”