Joy and pride

Regarding “A second child becomes a lone soldier and a grateful mother says ‘thanks once again” (October 15), my wife Wendy and I can empathize with you on your feelings as your daughter and now your son are ‘lone soldiers’.

Our own son, Mordy, was a lone soldier (a magist as well), as he was a hesder yeshiva student at Yeshivat Birkat Moshe, here in Maale Adumim. After his ‘gap year’ of study at the yeshiva he decided to make aliya, with our blessings of course, and join his older sister here in Israel who had made aliya a few years before.

My wife and I soon followed our two children’s lead by making aliya with our youngest daughter in July 2010. I cannot put into words the pure joy and pride that I felt coming off the Nefesh B’Nefesh flight, not only having finally made aliya after 40 years of yearning to come to Israel, but also the pride I felt seeing our son for the first time in his IDF uniform as he greeted us along with the rest of our Israeli family and friends at the airport.

Thank God, our eldest daughter followed suit a year and a half later and we can proudly say that we are here in Israel with all our kids and now grandchildren.

I have some advice for Cheryl Azair from Los Angeles. We also came from Los Angeles: follow your kids here and make aliya as soon as possible. As an former Angelino, I can say that LA’s a great place to live and bring up kids, but Israel is a far better place to live and raise a family.

We love it here and so will you. Come home soon... NORMAN DEROVAN Ma’aleh Adumim