What are most teenage girls busy with?
School. Friends. Shopping. Talking on the phone.
But one 14-year-old girl was suddenly torn from this rosy, idyllic world, and thrust into an ocean of pain, fear, illness and agony.
What can you say to comfort a girl whose hair is all gone, who’s lost so much weight that she’s practically see-through, and who’s embarrassed to be seen outside? What can you say when she stands before the mirror and starts to cry, because the life that she had, the health she had, is no longer?
What can you say to a girl whose father walked out on her family ten years ago, leaving her mother alone to care for her and her six siblings, including a mentally-ill brother?
What can you say to a girl who lives with 8 people in a cramped 1½ bedroom apartment in dire poverty?
What can you say to a struggling mother who was forced to choose between the job and salary that enabled her to afford her rent and food and her sick daughter? What can you say to a mother who quit her job so she could accompany her daughter to her frequent treatments, medical appointments, and hospital stays?
Can you tell them not to be ashamed? Can you tell them not take a cab to the hospital, that it’s cheaper for them to take a bus? Can you tell them that it makes no difference whether or not Udel is ashamed to be seen in the street wearing a cap to cover her hairless head?
Udel needs so much strength to triumph upon the evil that’s overtaking her body. Her mother needs so much encouragement to continue battling the odds.
They both need so much hope.
They need us!
There’s nothing we can say, but there is something we can do to give them strength.
We can help them win the cancer!
We can help the family get through this challenge.
We can show them that we care.
Every donation is another gift of love, another chessed, another mitzvah!
Every dollar means hope and happiness, light and life to a suffering family.
There’s nothing we can say. But with our help, we can at least shoulder some of the impossible burden that they’re carrying and help them emerge from the vicious cycle of poverty and fear.
We can pay for Udel’s taxis to the hospital. We can cover the costs of Udel’s tutors, so when she goes back to school, she won’t be too far behind. We can help the family afford food and clothing and shoes and also a few extras that they need so much during this trying time…
And above all, we can daven for Udel and her family for the yeshua that they need so desperately…
Please daven for Udel bas Chaya Rivka besoch sha’ar cholei amcha Yisrael!
