Miriam Peretz, who lost her two sons, Uriel and Eliraz, while they were serving in the IDF, shared this evening (Sunday) with mixed feelings of joy and pain the engagement announcement of her orphaned grandson - Or Hadash Uriel, Eliraz's eldest son.
In an emotional post she published, titled "A New Light on Zion Tair" - Peretz wrote: "My beloved grandson Or Hadash Uriel, the eldest son of Eliraz Benny, got engaged yesterday to his beloved Renana from Kibbutz Meirav.
"A new light was born 4 years after the fall of his uncle Uriel in Lebanon. Eliraz named him after Uriel. He was 6 years old when his father Eliraz fell, and from that day on, I prayed every day that I would be blessed to see him in his canopy, that I would be blessed to dance with him the dance that his father would dance with him. Yesterday, God blessed me with this moment."
Uriel Peretz, Miriam's eldest son, was killed on November 25, 1998 at the age of 22, as commander of the reconnaissance department in the 51st Battalion of the Golani Brigade, in an ambush in southern Lebanon.
About seven years later, in 2005, Miriam's husband, the late Eliezer, died of a serious illness that developed after the death of his son.
On March 26, 2010, her second son, Major Eliraz Peretz, was killed in a clash with terrorists in the Gaza Strip.
Or Hadash, named after his uncle (abbreviation: Ah), was 6 years old when his father was killed, and is currently serving in the IDF and about to build a house in Israel.
In the post, Peretz wrote: "The situation was not easy. Crying and joy intertwined. Deep pain that Benny Eliraz did not get to stand next to his son, neither at the bar mitzvah, nor at the engagement, and joy that the 6-year-old boy has grown up, is serving in the IDF today and is about to build a new home in the Land of Israel."
She described the complex range of emotions: "The range of emotions of pain and joy is confusing. It is possible to live with this crazy combination. It is possible for the heart to break and from the brokenness a new building will be built. A bitter eye cries and a happy heart."
She concluded with a prayer for the return of the kidnapped: "May we all be blessed to experience joys, they will not be complete until we are blessed to have all the kidnapped return home."
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