Translation by Yehoshua Siskin
"Shalom, my name is Meital Galor, a resident of Sderot. Tonight I went to visit my father who is hospitalized in the corona department, and I returned with two experiences that it's important for me to share:
At first, when I put on the protective gear, I almost suffocated. I felt imprisoned inside one head covering on top of another, overalls, special shoes, masks, and a face shield. It was hot and difficult to cope, but the goal -- to see my father for a few minutes -- was so important to me that I managed to prevail. Suddenly I understood how grateful we should feel towards the medical teams that work with so much dedication, for a lot more than a few moments, and not for their father, but for the parents of all of us. Have I devoted even one moment of thought to their working conditions for nearly a year?
When we waited outside, a haredi man and woman stood next to me in protective gear. I recoiled from them. 'Nu, of course,' I told myself, 'no wonder, they went to a mass funeral and got infected.' But when I listened to a conversation between them I understood that they were two volunteers who left everything and came to help out of thier own good will. They divided the patients between them and had brought one patient hot croissants that he had requested specifically. I started to cry. They did not comprehend what had happened to me. I began to say how much I was mistaken about them and that I had come to visit my hospitalized father. The woman comforted me and said that she had visited my father during the week and had encouraged him.
Sweating and barely breathing, I started to become embarrassed at myself. To be ashamed of my apathy towards the medical teams, to be ashamed at my stereotyping of that couple. Special thoughts of repentance passed through me tonight while I stood in the protective suit. If only the corona will bring about a mutation among us, a change for the good.
These words are dedicated to the recovery of my father, Moshe ben Rachel, among all those ailing in Israel."
