339. A Shawarma Kindness

An American/Israeli woman living in Israel shares a kindness she witnessed in the midst of all the violence in her world.

Transcripts may not appear in their final version and are subject to change.

I’m a little bit nervous sending this through but something made my day okay so I thought I would share it. Um, I’m an American Israeli who lives in Israel and since October 7th my world’s been turned completely upside down. Uh, my husband was called up as a reserve soldier on October 7th and he was gone for over five months and He came back, um, safe, which I’m really thankful for.

Um, and was home for another two months, just almost like living our regular lives, even though it was so not regular, because there was still a war, and it was still horrific, and I was still scared to read the news every morning. Um, but then he got a text from his commander, um, maybe six or seven weeks in to, you know, after being at home for, you know, that amount of time, and said that they needed him again.

So He’s been called up again and that just leaves me solo parenting my three boys who are, um, one, four, uh, one, three and four. So it’s a handful to say the least. Um, but you know, like I’m just, I’m just doing my part. Um, so it’s been really hard and there’s so, so, so many things that are not okay. Like, I just do so many things.

Um, but. I dropped my husband off at the train this morning. He gets to come home sometimes for a few days. I dropped him off and I forgot to like send him with food. I just, it was just a chaotic morning which is pretty usual, um, with my three little kids and I, I didn’t send him with any food. Um, and I told him you should grab some food at the train station.

He said, yeah, yeah, I will, I will. Anyway, I’m texting him later and he’s stuck. Um, he’s, this is just such a crazy reality. He’s stuck at the train station up north because there’s rockets flying from Lebanon. So he can’t get to his base because it’s not safe because of all the rockets. So he’s going to go grab something to eat at the train station.

Um, I’m laughing because it’s just, it’s just a not normal thing to say. Um, Anyway, he texts me a few minutes later saying, hun, I went to go get shawarma and this sweet old lady decided to buy it for me. And he’s like, I just, I just can’t believe it that eight months to eight months into this war, 255 days in to this like horrible war.

There’s still like so much support and it’s just such a small thing. It’s an 8 thing, you know, someone spent 8 and, and bought my husband a shawarma. Well, he could have bought it himself, obviously. It was just such a nice gesture, such an appreciation and it’s made my day. So, well, I know that. There’s so many things, like so many things that aren’t okay.

That was one little thing that made my day okay.