Last update - 00:00 01/03/2008
How one family was shattered
At lunchtime Friday, Varda, 67, and Isaschar Seruya, 70, sat down to eat with three of their 12 adult children at their home on Rambam Street in Sderot.
Five of the couple's children live with them, including three who subsist on National Insurance Institute allowances due to slight developmental disabilities. They also have a granddaughter living with them, Ilanit's daughter Shahar, who works to support her parents and siblings.
As they gathered at the lunch table, the Color Red alarm went off. The house was not fortified.
"I went to bring the pot from the kitchen and there was an alarm," Varda said. "I didn't have time to hide and there was a bang, everything collapsed."
Ambulances arrived. "From there they took us to the Hosen trauma center, for treatment," Ilanit said. "There they took our blood pressure and talked to us."
The Hosen trauma center referred Varda to Ashkelon's Barzilai Medical Center, because of hypertension. "Meanwhile, we went home, to pack stuff," Ilanit said.
"We couldn't find our things. Everything was ruined and full of dust," said Yoav, a son.
The tax authority sent the family, with the clothes they managed to pack, to the Golden Tulip Hotel in Be'er Sheva. Families whose homes have been destroyed are usually sent to an Ashkelon hotel, but with the upsurge in Grad missile attacks on Ashkelon, the families are now being routed to hotels in other areas.
Varda got to the hotel the evening after she was released from the hospital, and the family gathered in one hotel room, seeking solace in each other.
"We don't know what will happen to us now," Ilanit said. "We don't want to go back to Sderot. We have no house there, and we have nowhere else to go, either."
Varda was still in shock from what happened. Her granddaughter, Shahar, had one thing on her mind: "How will I go to school on Sunday? How?"
On the day after, the family seemed to be feeling even worse. "We couldn't sleep all night," they said in a chorus. They don't leave the hotel room, don't know how they will get on with their lives now."
"I want to go back to Sderot," Yoav said suddenly.
Snir Suissa, Varda's grandson, was seriously wounded by a Qassam more than a year ago. Since then, the family has been growing ever more anxious. Yoav insisted on explaining why, nonetheless, he wants to return to Sderot. "I need the synagogue. Here I'm not familiar with anything," he said, looking at the hotel ceiling. "I need the prayer service, need Sderot," he said.