Tenderness: Merav's Illness

[Merav Malahi de Valentin]

I'd been desperately ill for the past few days. Unable to keep anything down, I regularly filled the basin at the side of my bed, and Zahav faithfully emptied it. He put cold cloths on my head, boiled tea, rubbed unguents into my rash. Every time I tried to tell him not to do it, he would only redouble his efforts, and I was too weak to protest.

Amazingly, he avoided becoming ill. He attributed it to his foreign blood. So when I asked him to write to Darien for me, he was all too eager to do so. Between words, as I refilled the basin, I prayed for Darien's health, and a wish to survive to see him one more time.

[Merav Malahi de Valentin]

I'd been delirious for days, not knowing who I was or where. Dimly, I was aware of voices around me, but I could not see. "Mother!" I cried out. "Mother, I want my mother..." and I wept like a baby. "Darien, I am sorry...sorry I didn't get to see you..." And I blacked out.

When I woke, the sun was high overhead. "Zahav!" I called. "Zahav!" He came running. "Feel my head."

He did. "It's cool."

I thrust my tongue out of my mouth.

"Barukh Hashem, it's normal!"

I began to laugh, and then cry. "Zahav, I'm alive! I'm alive!"