Mazel has been single parenting for the past nine years. Yael her daughter is a bright fourth grader whose favorite subject in school is English. Mazel at the age of three became sick and as a result of that illness developed polio. For Mazel, running to a bomb shelter is out of the question.

She seldom leaves home and only leaves to do the essential shopping, paying bills and doctor visits. She works part time from home via the internet and fax as a dispatcher for a trucking company. It helps out but there is always more month then money.

Mazel and Yael have lived in Sderot for the past six year and when asked about the stress of living with Kassams all she could say was “woo, woo, woo.” A few years ago she had a seizer that left her on the floor unable to call for help. The doctors seem to thing the seizer was brought on by the added stress of living with Kassams. She now has a “first alert” type device in her home to notify the police and ambulance service if she should need help. She fell behind in the monthly fee for the service and they threatened to disconnect the service until she could pay the balance that was due. Thanks be to G-D we were able to help her with that bill and brought it current for her.

Just to give you some idea, in the past nine years one report says that of the 10,000 plus Kassams fired from Gaza since 2001, 7,500 of them have landed in Sderot. Of those 7,500 Mazel has been here for approximately 4998 of them, that works out to 2.2 Kassams every day for the past six years. Stress… most people don’t know stress like Mazel. Yes we all have stress but not the kind that you fear for the safety of your daughter, whom you can’t even walk to her bus stop and for your self that you may not make it to a bomb shelter in time.

Yet with all this in her life, while Kobi was laid up in his home after surgery Mazel cooked him lunch every day and either had one of the volunteers from Hope For Sderot pick it up for him or she took a taxi to deliver it to him. Extraordinary people doing extraordinary thing in spite of their extraordinary circumstances.