It's a very sad aspect of kibbutz life, but nothing brings us more together than communal grief, when a kibbutz member dies. Most of the time, it's the elderly that pass away, and more often than not this can be a relief for the family. But sometimes, when an unexpected death occurs ... it's a shock that everybody feels.
About 20 years ago, if not more, one kibbutz member died in a car crash on a Friday morning. He was a member in high standing, probably as old then as I am now. I hadn't had much contact with him, but as it happened, a few days before his death, I was showing him how to use the spreadsheet Paradox (that was later overtaken by Excel) in order to prepare budgets. His family organised an evening in his memory, itself an unusual event that shows how highly regarded he was. I volunteered to play a sad song, but before I did, I took the opportunity to speak to the audience about how in the days before his death, I had been working with him. On the Saturday night I had a dream (as I told the audience) that I was sitting with the kibbutz treasurer and wondering how we would complete the work of this member, from where we would find the data. Then he (the member who died) came into the dream and said that everything would be ok, and that we would manage without him. Then I tried to play the song, but my hands were so slippery that I probably didn't play too well.
Why am I writing all this now? Because we were informed about an hour ago that a 32 year old member and 'son of the kibbutz' had died. He had a growth in his brain; we had been given to understand that his health had improved, but hearing the sad news has knocked everyone for six. He was married and had two small children; they will grow up without knowing their father (a situation that has unfortunately not been infrequent in Israel). I personally didn't know him, but I know his parents and used to work with his grandparents before they retired.
There was supposed to be a joint meeting of three very important committees (I'm a member of one) this evening, but unsurprisingly it has been cancelled. No date has been announced yet for the funeral (it would normally be tomorrow, but there must be some reason for its delay) but I am sure that it is going to be a traumatic event.
| Blog # | Date | Title | Tags |
|---|---|---|---|
| 147 | 27/11/2008 | Achievements | Programming, ERP |
| 1187 | 27/11/2018 | Intermediate thesis accepted!! | DBA |
| 1276 | 27/11/2019 | Song festival 2019 - 2 | Song writing |
| 1359 | 27/11/2020 | Preparing for the DBA viva | DBA |
| 1556 | 27/11/2022 | Grief | Obituary, Kibbutz |
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