The family I never knew

So my mother decided to email me during my trip to ask me if I wanted to visit family while in Israel. “What?!” I responded to her. “We have family here? Why didn’t anyone ever tell me?” Well, someone may have said something to me in the past, but I definitely didn’t remember. So I took it as a nice surprise. I picked up the phone, made a connection, and off on a bus ride to Acco I went, where my mom’s mom’s niece lives.

It was really nice spending time with these newfound family members, Chava and Hanan. One of the first things they did when I arrived at their home was take out a photo album and showed me pictures of my grandmother (we called Bubbie). I was in awe! I had never seen so many pictures of my Bubbie before. It touched my heart very much (and made me feel like these strangers were really my family ;) Before I knew it I turned the page and saw a picture of me as a little girl!! Wow! How did that get in there?! Chava told me that she visited us in the US when I was young but unfortunately I didn’t remember. But there was clearly proof. I stumbled upon a picture of my two sisters, brother and me and I almost cried. I love seeing pictures of my brother that I have never seen before. I really miss him. He's the little guy on the right. My sister, Leora, is to the left of him, next is Asaf (Chava's son), I am to the left of him and my eldest sister, Becky, is to the left of me. How cute is this!

So this was a special time for me as you can imagine. Chava and Hanan were so hospitable. They kept on trying to feed me (like any good Jewish family would), offered me a place to stay, even did my laundry so nicely (what a treat!), and took me on a tour of the old city of Acco. They lived in a beautiful place, walking distance to the Mediterranean Sea. So taking a walk along the coast was really lovely.

I am grateful for this opportunity to meet new family members and happy I made the effort to connect.

Click on the picture of Chava and I below for more photos.