Wednesday
We decided that we needed some one-on-one quiet time with our grandmother. So Wednesday turned into a lovely girls day out. We picked up our Meme and headed out to lunch at our favorite spot – Aroma Café! We shared a delightful meal, joked, laugh, and of course clowned each other for the duration of our meal. We explored a few of the local shops and had a great culinary experience browsing the aisles of SuperSal Deal!
It was a mellow day and wonderfully heart warming!
Thursday
We planned to meet with my dad's sister, our Tata Rachel for lunch on Thursday afternoon. Knowing we had a few hours to spend on our own beforehand, we decided to head toward Netanya for a quick seaside respite and shopping experience. I was immediately stunned by the beauty of the beach, the hills and the vista views. WOW!
The views were breathtaking and thanks to the Panaroma setting on our camera we were able to capture some beautiful shots. We could have stayed all day but had to get to our commitments, so we decided to come back the next day on Friday.
It was beyond lovely to spend time with Tata Rachel. At 75 years old, she is beyond beautiful, outgoing, young spirited and open minded. 
We sat down to a lunch of chicken skewers at Sami B'Kikar in downtown Hadera (think The Humous Bar in Encino) and enjoyed catching up and learning about cousins and their children. We were joined for a few minutes by Tali, her youngest daughter and her cutie daughter Harel, and by our cousin Kobi (whom we call Pipo). He showed us pictures of his beautiful family. His son Rom, who is studing electrical engineering is the epitome of Taylor Lautner! We also talked about the sadness that the whole family has had to endure with the passing of their daughter and sister and our first cousin, Elana or in French Elian. She was in her early 50s, kind hearted, generous of spirit, stylish and beyond beautiful.
To pay our respects to those family members no longer with us, our grandparents Mazal and Nissim, and his brother Samuel, and out aunts Raymond and Juliet (and her husband Chaim), we headed to the cemetery in Or Akiva. Cemeteries always lead my mind to think - reading the names and information on each tombstone makes me wonder about the people buried underneath them - who they were and where they came from. After lighting candles for each of the deceased and paying our respects, we headed to Tata Rachel's house. 
From there she pulled out a Memory book made in dedication to her daughter. Written notes, Facebook messages and pictures from her life filled each page. Each time we mentioned her name, her father cried and then we cried. Our hearts were filled with sadness and our minds with disbelief at how someone so beautiful and young could be taken at such a young and vibrant age. She is the first of our first cousins to pass and while we didn't know each other so well, there was and will always be a bond of family and DNA there. May her memory forever be a blessing.
