Talia
I enter a room full of people, some familiar and some less so, and sit amongst them. Suddenly I turn my head and see you beside me, smiling a broad, warm smile and sharing your thoughts with me. I notice that no one but me is speaking to you. I ask Hagai why he is not speaking to you, and he answers that you are not here! I turn towards you and see you moving away from me...
The alarm clock rings and wakes me. I realise that it was only a dream I had about you. It was so real that I get up smiling. That is who you are, Talia — always making sure that I am well. That is what I felt at that moment.
We became friends in third grade, and since then we went through a great deal together — happy, sad and serious things. We even matched our families with one another, and it worked.
A few days ago, I found a greeting card you bought me for my nineteenth birthday. I opened it to remember your handwriting and what you wished me. Suddenly I began to laugh at a sentence you wrote: “I love you for ever (even when you are irritable), Talia.”
The nickname was born after all the hours we spent speaking on the telephone, while you made sure to pass on all the gossip from the youth-group branch. Who is with whom? Who broke up with whom? It was “Hello, Talia Directory Enquiries!”
Every year you organised a surprise party for me and failed to keep it secret — except once, when I was sixteen. It was at your house. You invited all the friends, and it was a surprise. You were so pleased that you had managed to keep it secret without breaking. As for your own birthday, you spoke about it six months in advance. You always asked: “Do you know what is happening in another six months?” To annoy you, we would answer: “What is happening?” You would be disappointed by our answer. You were innocent, and that was what was beautiful!
I never understood how it was possible to shower for an entire hour, until one day I was at your house and noticed that you took the radio into the shower, switched on Galgalatz and sang. Who had ever heard of such a thing?! But when you think about it, it simply characterised you — the joy within you that infected all of us...
It was important to you that I should have happiness in my heart. So you decided to take the initiative and began going through the list of boys’ names on your mobile telephone. Who might suit me?! You introduced me to the whole world and his wife!
You showed a concern for me that no other friend had. You did not want me to be hurt. In our last conversation, you said: “I would rather hurt you — and that comes from love — than have him hurt you, when it does not come from love.”
I shall never forget the last Shabbat I spent with you in Haifa, with your dear parents and Moti. During one of the meals, the three of us sat together, and suddenly, with a broad smile, you said that you were happy to spend Shabbat with the people dearest to you...
I want to take this opportunity to thank you for giving me the privilege of being your good friend.
For allowing me to be part of your life, and for teaching me so many things: to know how to look at every person and search for the good within them.
Always to smile — because the neighbour across the road does not need to know what you are going through.
Always to say the sentence you used to say to me:
“It will be all right.”
Your friend for ever,
Rivka.