The elaborate wedding hall hummed with warm exclamations of "Mazel Tov" as the first guests milled about, awaiting the beginning of the ceremony. Most of the early arrivals were close family and friends. When a thin, pallid teen-age girl limped in hesitantly with a woman - apparently her mother - supporting her as they walked, the natural curiosity of the guests was aroused.
"It must be a cousin of the groom," the bride's sisters surmised.
"She doesn't look familiar. Must be a friend of the bride," the groom's aunts ventured a hushed guess.
Suddenly, they were all surprised to see Leah Weiss, the mother of the groom, rushing towards the two newcomers and gathering them towards her in a warm embrace. Shortly afterward, Leah's mother, Rivka Eisman, the honored grandmother of the groom, joined the emotional welcome.
No - Tzippi, the pale, frail guest, was not a blood relative of either side, nor had she ever met the bride before. Yet she felt closer than family, and remained at the wedding with her mother until its happy conclusion, when the band packed up to leave.
When she returned at that late hour to her hospital room in Hadassah Medical Center, the head nurse on the surgical ward - which had become Tzippi's home for the last six months - could not help but remark, "Tzippi, your face is shining as if you yourself were the bride."
For a half year, Tzippi had been hospitalized, cut off from the active world of her youthful lively friends in high school, focused on nothing more than getting well. The long, dreary days were brightened by the daily visits of Ezer Mizion volunteers who brought a taste of "the outside" and a ray of sunshine into Tzippi's monotonous routine. With time, a warm bond formed between the teenager and her dedicated volunteer visitors -Leah Weiss and her mother, Rivka Eisman.
"The Ezer Mizion volunteers do not regard the patients as an object, a 'chesed project'," comments Devorah Kroe, Ezer Mizion's Hadassah Medical Center Branch Director. "They relate to them so warmly and sincerely that they become like family. What could be more natural than to invite 'family' to the wedding of your son/grandson?"
Tzippi was thrilled to have been included in the Weiss's celebration, and though the participation was a physical strain, the emotional boost more than made up for it. As for Leah Weiss and her mother, they continue their weekly visits, without missing a beat due to the simcha. Nor do they consider their situation unusual.
"All the Ezer Mizion volunteers do their work with dedication, devotion and love - after all, aren't we all - volunteers and patients alike - part of the caring Ezer Mizion family?"
*personal details have been changed to protect privacy |
