Hanna Ramras - January 26, 2008
Moving to Israel
And was there a particular event or moment where you said, "It's time for us to leave Brazil"?
Every time I said it, something else cropped up to stop it or delay it. But we were meant to be there for specific reasons. My brother and sister-in-law were like parents to us and when my brother-in-law became ill--sick--we were there to help and to, to continue in the business with his sister-in-law--with his sister. And when my, my brother-in-law passed away my sister-in-law was alone--no children...
They had no children.
No children. And therefore, we were there to take care of my sister-in-law and we were planning our aliyah--our coming to Israel--together with my sister-in-law when she became ill and she had a heart attack and she passed away.
I'm sorry.
And I had often during my stay in Brazil looked heavenward and said, "Why Brazil? What is it that you want from me in Brazil?" And when we buried my sister-in-law it certainly came to me that we had--we were on a mission in Brazil. And everybody has a mission. Some people don't--are just not aware of it but I am very aware of the mission that I had.
And so that was the point at which you said it's time to...
That--after that it was as if a red carpet had been rolled out for us to go to Israel. It didn't take long. My sister-in-law passed away in '83 in August and in '84 April we were here. It took us a number of months to do what had to be done with the business and to notify my students who were preparing for different kinds of examinations that they should start looking around for another tutor. And uh, we packed our bags, said goodbye and never went back. We've been here for twenty four years.
So does it--let me get back to the original question. Is there, is there anything in particular that triggers a memory of England or Bratislava or...
Bratislava uh, yes because I have been back several times to see...
[interruption in interview]
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