I FICTION
Tears
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Vall(3°114
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5 Isligilts
its Regu1
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hoteloof
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com (one
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Rates Include:
Israeli breakfast & service charge.
Free Budget rent-a-car for 5 days (grp B).
(not including gas, mileage & insurance) *.
Combine these attractive hotel-only
packages with your own private car,
including:
—4 or 7 seater including
driver/guide (up to 200 km. per day) $145 per day.
—Over mileage $0.60 (over 200 km. per day).
—Overnight guide (outside TLV) $40 per night.
— Entrance fees per person per day $7.
Airport transfers (including assistance):
—to Tel-Aviv $30 per car — cars up to 7 persons.
—to Jerusalem $65 per car.
All rates are in US$.
* Maximum free rental — 7 days
Minimum 50 km per day compulsory:
For Reservations Call
YOUR TRAVEL AGENT OR
Israel Hotel Representatives
Toll Free U.S.A. (800)223-7773
N.Y (212) 752-6120
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Where you bank.
they arrived for their visit.
One nurse, recognizing his
parents, said his grand-
mother was sleeping but was
happily awaiting their
arrival.
As they quietly entered her
room, he saw a small figure
lying in the bed, curled up in
the sheets like a child in
deepest slumber.
"Hi, Gramdma!"
"Hi, Mom. We brought you
a visitor."
The figure slowly turned to
face them and suddenly came
to life. They frail person that
he saw was transformed into
the person that he always
knew. Fighting back tears,
they hugged each other for
what seemed to be forever.
"How are you feeling?"
"Tired, but better now. It's
so nice to see you. How did
your exams go?"
He smiled at the question.
"Fine." It's just nice to be
home. You look pretty good,"
he lied. She had lost quite a
bit of weight. Her face looked
drawn and tired.
"Well, the doctors say I'm
better. I'm just so weak. The
therapy takes-a lot out of me,
but I think it's working?'
The four of them spent the
next hour in family gossip,
school and the like. The sub-
ject of his grandmother's il-
lness was never brought up
again.
His grandmother grew tired
as evening approached, so the
family went home for dinner.
_ Conversation reflected the
weather: dreary. The three of
them, now joined by his
brother, seemed to discuss
everything except his grand-
mother's illness. Finally, he
brought it up.
It was obvious that the best
that her doctors could do
would be to give her a few
more months. His mother,
however, could not totally ad-
mit that to herself or to her
mother.
"I just can't tell her," she
said, her eyes welling up with
tears. "She'd give up hope."
Nonsense, he thought. His
grandmother had to unders-
tand how badly she was do-
ing. If his mother told her, he
thought, then his mother
would give up hope, not his
grandmother. As he went to
bed that night, he said two
special prayers: one for his
grandmother's recovery, and
one \for his mother to have the
strength to deal with her
mother's illness.
he next day was busy
for the family. He
spent several hours at,
the hospital talking with his
grandmother, although he
abided by his family's wishes
to not reveal her poor
prognosis.
T
He spent the vacation at
home, with friends, or at the
hospital. His grandmother
seemed to grow stronger with
each visit. Her appetite was
getting better. They talked of
many things, mostly the pre-
sent and the future. She told
him how proud she was of
him, of how well he'd do in
school and in life. She spoke
of her parents, of how much
they would have loved him.
They gave each other advice
and support.
He sensed that she indeed
knew that her time was
limited . . . that she wanted to
compact as much as possible
into each visit.
The conversations went by
too fast; vacation ended as
quickly as it began. As he
went to bed on Saturday
night, he wished to see her
just one more time. Somehow,
he thought to himself, there
was some unfinished business
that they needed to discuss.
Sunday morning, he asked
his parents to change his
flight. He told them that he
needed to see his grand-
mother one more time before
he went back to school. "A
funny feeling" is how he
described it to his parents.
Their visit, indeed, surpris-
ed his grandmother, who had
not expected to see him again
for another two weeks. The
four talked a lot . . . she look-
ed marvelous, he thought to
himself. Her strength was
slowly returning. She ate
lunch ("homemade lunch, not
that garbage they serve
here!"). Perhaps her prognosis
was not as bad as they
thought.
Suddenly, she confronted
his parents with a simple
question: "How am I doing?"
They all looked at each
other, waiting for someone to
break the silence.
"The doctors say you're do-
ing much better," said his
father. "But they found that
the cancer had spread."
"In other words . ." she
countered.
"In other words," he con-
tinued, 'they can't cure it."
Words such as "palliation"
and "terminal" were discusd.
How much time? Months,
maybe a year. Radiation.
Treatments. Somehow, the
tension drained out of the air.
His father asked her about
more chemotherapy.
"Well, I want to live. Let's
try it and see what happens,"
she replied matter-of-factly.
"It seems to have worked so
far." She paused. "I want to
live."
It was as if a wall had been
broken down between his
mother and grandmother.
The tension on his mother's
face left for the first time in