Letters to A Son

April 26, 2007 - 2:00 PM by Stephanie

Enough cannot be said about mothers and their sons when it comes to Israel & mandatory military service at age 18. The once-children enter into the army and heart pain, worry, ruminating and the realization that a once-little-drooly-thing in diapers is now flying jets or commanding a tank unit or learning how to navigate expanses of desert or forest hits.

I’m not discounting the dads, by the way. But I’m not a father so I’m writing from the femme vantage point. See David’s entry here to get a father’s perspective.

A month ago, A Soldier’s Mother’s son Elie went into the Israeli army.

“Mother” is blogging her letters and feelings, including this heartfelt entry written to/for son Elie who won’t be coming home to visit this weekend. An excerpt:

Tonight, he cannot call me to wish me a good night. To tell me what he did during the day and how things are going. He doesn’t call every night, but he calls quite often in the one hour free time per day they are given before they go to bed. So much is regulated for them – when they get up in the morning, how much time they have to say their morning prayers, eat their breakfast.

They have a specified period of time for dressing, for rest periods, eating, and more. They are encouraged to call home because, as I have come to learn, the army recognizes that their soldiers need to have their parents calm and aware of what is happening to them. We become a sounding board, another pair of eyes watching over as they take our sons and transform them into soldiers.

Good luck to you all; hopefully he’ll get home next weekend (with a heap of laundry in tow).

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