Jaime lived in Netanya with her father briefly and to make a long story short, he is buried there. A few months back Jaime asked a question on a list-serve about where the cemetery is located, if for some chance we made it there. She got a few responses, but one extraordinary one stood out. It was from a British ex-pat named Gideon.
After finding out her father's name, Gideon found his way to the cemetery and asked the right people where his grave was and actually found it! He took some pictures and sent it to us by email and told us to look him up when we got there.
Jaime gave him a call and we picked him up at a bus station. He was a nice chap and was excited to show us to where the grave was. After exchanging each other's background information and histories, we arrived at the cemetery. It was a very hot day and the sun was directly overhead. We walked to a plot in the back near the opposite corner where we arrived. As we got there, Gideon was describing his experience looking for it, giving a matrix combination of where it could be: 3rd row, fourth grave, or 4th row, third...
We finally found it and tried to take some personal time alone to reflect when we were descended upon by a couple of guys who wanted to polish his gravestone. We told him no thanks but he kept on hounding us. I finally had to yell at him to get lost and he finally left -- only to come back later and start again.
We talked to the kids about their grandfather, took some pictures and video, and left some stones on the grave. Upon walking back to the car, Gideon told us that he was so proud he called his rabbi about what he did. We offered him a lift back, but he refused and hopped on a bus that magically appeared as we walked to the car. We were very thankful for his good deed; his mitzvah.
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