[COMMUNICATED]
Esther Aker stood next to her father at the bus stop, the night wind whipping the air as snowflakes fell from the black sky. As she hugged her father goodbye, tears streamed down her face.

“Please, Abba,” she whispered. “Don’t leave me.”

“I am so, so sorry, Esther,” he whispered back. “But Mommy is so sick, she really needs me now…You know it pains me to leave you now,” he said, voice quivering. 

Esther hugged her father tightly one last time before he boarded the Egged bus. She waited until he was just a green speck on the top of the hill and then slowly walked back to the hall.

What would she do now?

Esther wishes both of her parents could have been with her at her engagement party that night, but her mother is fighting a terrible neurological disease. Her father is a ZAKA volunteer, and Esther ran the house and cared for her siblings and mother while her father was in Kibbutz Be’eri, clearing corpses. As the bus disappeared from the horizon on the night of her engagement party, she never felt more lonely. Even though she had her fiance, and he was amazing, he wouldn’t be able to support her in a way like a parent could, at least not until they got married.
Engagement should be a happy time. Please, consider donating to help Esther to make a simple wedding with dignity. After all she has endured, let this be a happy moment.