Hundreds of people, including relatives and friends, accompanied the teenager Raanan Gigi (17) of Jerusalem on his final journey. Gigi, one of the symbols of the Hadassah Hospital crisis, died yesterday of intestinal cancer.
Ra'anan, a religious-Zionist youngster who attended the Regavim Yeshiva, was hospitalized in the pediatric hemato-oncology ward of the Jerusalem hospital, and since the doctors' resignation six months ago, was forced to go to the Sheba Medical Center near Tel Aviv for treatment.
The newspaper Yediot Ahronot reported that the participants sang and wept to the song that Raanan loved whose words were written by Rabbi Avraham Hacohen Kook: "Son of man: ascend upward, ascend; for you have strong wings, wings of eagles, knights wings; Forsake them not lest they forsake you; Seek them out - and they will be found right away."
"In your battle against your illness you bestowed life to us and you filled us with joy. You are the most precious gift we could ever ask for, you will never be left alone, our whole family will be with you - now, in 20 years, and 80 years, your place will not be lost, we love and miss you, dear brother," eulogized Raanan's sisters.
His father, Moti, wept over his grave, "I have been crying for two years, but until recently I did not cry in your presence so that you might gain strength. I cried endlessly in the past few days, and when you saw me saddened you came and hugged me."
The father referred to the Hadassah crisis: "The doctors who took care of Ra'anan are angels, we have come a long way and suffered tremendous jolts. When we finally got used to the doctor at Hadassah, we had to move to Tel Hashomer, and after the fact, it turned out for the best. When Ra'anan died the first hug came from the director of Sheba, Prof. Itzik Kreis."