A Woman I Will Never Forget

February 26, 2010

Shalom,

My heater broke yesterday, and the weather in Jerusalem is very cold. I am sitting here writing while bundled in many layers, but I'm still shivering. My kids are cold too, even though they're wearing their warm hats and gloves and sipping on hot tea. I hug them as tightly as I can, which is the only thing that keeps them warm, and say a silent prayer for the heat to be fixed soon. The heating company says they can make it to my house by tomorrow, but it is hard for me to fathom sleeping another night in temperatures like this.

Yet each time I begin to feel sorry for myself and my family, I think of Shifra, an 80-year-old woman with short, frizzy gray hair and blue eyes like an angel, who I met last week in Jerusalem. Shifra lives on the top floor of an old apartment building with no elevator. When I met her, her gentle, loving demeanor made me feel that she deserves only the best things in life. But reality is different. Shifra is very poor and her apartment is in terrible disrepair. Her windows are all cracked and she has no heat. She is not physically able to walk down the six flights of stairs to the outside world because of the diabetes that has made her legs swollen and left her a prisoner in her own house. Shifra sits in bed all day, bundled under many blankets, scarves and socks, and simply waits for the arrival of food boxes from The Fellowship—her only source of nourishment.

Despite her kindness, beauty and loving smile, Shifra was never blessed with a family. "My whole life I looked for a husband and dreamed about children, yet I am all alone in this world," Shifra told me while squeezing my hand. "Today, it is only The Fellowship that keeps me alive."

Shifra is also part of The Fellowship's Winter Heating program, and because of Christian donors in America, she—along with more than a hundred thousand other poor and elderly Jews in Israel—are no longer freezing. "I can barely afford to buy medicine after paying my rent and I never even dreamed of being able to afford something like this,' Shifra tearfully told me, pointing to the new heater purchased for her by The Fellowship. "Maybe now I won't get sick so much."

There are some people you meet in life that you know you will never forget. Shifra is one of those people for me. She has taught me how to appreciate the blessings in my life. Leaving her apartment after a recent visit I went straight home and gave my husband a big hug, telling him how much he means to me. And now, when I enter my house after a long, tiring day at work to the sound of my two beautiful kids arguing, I don't get upset. Instead, I think about Shifra, and suddenly I'm able to put things into perspective. I look up to God and thank Him for granting me the blessing of children.

Now, as I sit in my cold living room layered in nearly my whole wardrobe, the thought of Shifra warms me up. For years she has endured the Jerusalem winter alone and without heat, and has struggled with diabetes and sickness. Yet now, thanks to The Fellowship's Winter Heating program and your generosity, she is warm. May God bless you always with warmth in your home, as well as in your heart.

With blessings from Jerusalem,

Yael