When five-year-old Galit Zelinsky hears a helicopter fly over her home in Nahariya, she thinks her father is inside and is coming home. After all, her mother told her that her father is in heaven.

Andrei Zelinsky was killed by a Katyusha rocket on July 18, 2006, six days into the Second Lebanon War. The entire family had run to the shelter when the siren sounded, but the shelter's brand-new air conditioner, installed just a day earlier, was running, and Galit, who had been napping and was still in her underwear when her father snatched her up, was cold. So Andrei returned to their apartment to get her a blanket. While outside, he saw several children and paused to warn them to get into the shelter. Just then, at 5:40 P.M., the Katyusha hit.

Rada Zelinsky, 30, will never forget the sight that met her eyes when she went out to look for her husband: body parts scattered all over the lawn. She could identify him only by his clothing.

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Andrei and Rada met nine years ago in Lvov, Ukraine. In 2001, they moved to Israel, and chose Nahariya as their new home because Rada had an uncle, aunt and cousins there. When she saw the town for the first time, she fell in love. "I never saw anything so beautiful," she said.

A year later, Galit was born. Money was very tight and they ran up a huge overdraft. Nevertheless, she said, Andrei never wanted to return to Ukraine, not even to visit.

Andrei, said Rada, knew that he would die young: "He would show me his palm, how short his lifeline was. The day before he was killed, he told friends and relatives that he had dreamed of his house being destroyed in the war."

At his parents' request, Andrei was buried in Ukraine. Rada and Galit flew to Lvov with the body, and when they returned two months later, Andrei's mother came with them. When her mother-in-law saw Nahariya, Rada related, she said that perhaps he should have been buried in Israel after all. Rada noted sadly that in fact, part of him was: After his body was taken to Ukraine, a neighbor who had been away when Andrei was killed returned to Nahariya and discovered body parts all over his apartment. They had blown in when the blast shattered the window. Those parts were then buried near a local memorial erected by Andrei's co-workers.

For months afterward, Rada saw the horrific sights of that day whenever she closed her eyes. Galit kept asking when her father would return, and began drawing black lines and blots incessantly. But now, her mother said, she draws houses and suns, and a psychologist confirmed that Galit is recovering.

Rada, who went once to a psychologist and then stopped, is grateful for the support she has received from neighbors and friends, as well as the government. As she talked about the people who have helped her, a smile appeared on her face for the first time. She has begun working and will soon move into a new apartment, purchased with her compensation money.

Aside from her grim memories, Rada sometimes has trouble coping with her mother-in-law, who has fits of depression during which she accuses Rada of having caused Andrei's death by her desire to move to Israel.

Rada herself is convinced that Andrei might well have died even if they had not moved here. As proof, she offers her sister who was killed in a car accident in Ukraine shortly before she, too, was supposed to move to Israel.