I worked and lived in the moshav. I milked cows and gave food to the chickens because father was working. I took care of the chores at home and the farm. I was a compactor worker. I used to work on a ramp that tightens the tar on the road. The rest of the town hall’s workers were old, I was the youngest. I bought a property here in moshav Nofekh because I used to live with my father in moshav Rinatya. I bought one room, and my wife and I built the whole house. She helped me. Thank God.

Sima: When your mother was alive, when did she get sick? How old were you?

Yosef: I was 12 or 13 years old, right?

Sima: She did a bar mitzva for you. Raphaʾel your brother was younger than you.

Yosef: I was the eldest.

Sima: What did she have?

Yosef: She had cancer.

Sima: How long was she sick?

Yosef: About a year.

Sima: What did you do? When your mother passed away, you rode a bicycle to Lod to see your family! And what happened on the way?

Yosef: An accident!

Sima: What accident? You were hit by a truck?

Yosef: I got hit by a truck at the airport’s road.

Sima: Were you seriously injured? What hospital were you at?

Yosef: In Tel Hashomer.

Sima: How long were you in the hospital?

Yosef: Two months. I was like a drunk.

Sima: Did you hit your head? How did you feel when you woke up?

Yosef: I didn’t remember anything. I saw myself in a hospital asking, "What happened?"

Sima: Did your friends come to see you when you came back from the hospital? How long did it take you to come back to yourself? What did you do?

Yosef: I helped my father feed the cows and the chickens, and we had a loyal and excellent horse. After the accident I received compensation and bought a room in the village.

Sima: Who introduced you to me?

Yosef: My aunt set us up.

Sima: What did she tell you?

Yosef: Good family and good girl, she only stutters a little.

Sima: He came to ask me and I told him "I stutter, are you ready to accept me with the stutter? Come in. If not - go away and I do not want to know anything about you. Go and that's it." He replied, "I don’t need you to speak like they do in the Knesset (parliament)." Within two weeks we got married and moved to Safed.

We lived in Safed for four and a half years. One day my husband told me: "Get up, I'm going to Nofekh Village." My late mother said: “If you love my daughter, you must live next door to me here in Safed. I need Sima's help." My husband had no choice. But in Safed it was very cold and he was used to the heat of the center (Rinatia and Nofekh are close to PetaḥvTikva). All winter my husband sat at home. He was mostly in bed, didn’t work or anything because of the cold.

Safed was not big. A very small town, but overall it was fine. We lived there for a few years and before returning to the village. We had two daughters and two sons.

My aunt, my late mother’s sister, introduced me to my wife. We only had one room, with no kitchen nor toilet, nothing. Only stones, rocks and soil. Reeds, prickly pears and fig trees grew all around us, amongst snakes, scorpions and rats. It was in 1972. It was me, my husband and our eldest daughter who was two and a half years old. Every day we would work on the house for at least four or five hours. Everyone would go to sleep, and I would continue my work, cooking, washing, cleaning and so on.