1st Interview with Michal and Shimon Gross after Birth (2-Minute Video)
Michal and Shimon Gross are such an inspiration…Listening to this interview is more powerful than listening to 1000 classes on emuna. English below. If embedded video doesn’t work, click here.
Somebody at hospital: May it be with mazal tov!
Shimon Gross: Thank you
Narrator: It wasn’t obvious to Shimon and Michal Gross that they would return to Shaarei Tsedek Medical Center. It was just a year minus one week that their four children were brought here after a serious case of poisoning. The doctors attempted to revive Avigail and Yael, but they did not survive as their parents watched.
Shimon Gross: We came here to the hospital, and you think about that moment when you saw Yael after she had passed away, and not long after that Avigail. And then you simply see the new baby, the new life that has come into the world. It’s something that you cannot describe in words. These are emotions that are beyond you. As they say “Hashem gave and Hashem took.”
Michal Gross: You feel how HaKadosh Baruch Hu is all the time giving and granting and embracing. Hits with one hand, but with the other hand He is all the time stroking us with love.
Shimon Gross: I don’t wish on anyone that they should sit shiva for two children.
Narrator: During the week of mourning the Grosses also fought for the lives of the two boys, who survived and entered a long period of rehabilition. All the time it was clear to the Grosses that their journey would also include new life.
Shimon Gross: Difficulty is difficulty. But on the other hand you understand that there is Something above you. Something beyond. You see that actually not everything is dependent on us. On the one hand, children die, and on the other hand you see that a child is born. This is not a simple thing, with all the risk, and it gives strength.
Interviewer: Do you have any thoughts about the name?
Shimon Gross: Give us an idea. Maybe, actually… We haven’t made a final decision.
How much does he weigh? 3.560 kilogram. He came out a bit big.
Narrator: Besides questions about the weight and the name, nothing else here was routine. Doctors from the ICU who have not forgotten that day come to the maternity ward.
Dr. Sarit Shichrur: Director of the Pediatric ICU, Shaarei Tsedek Medical Center: I remember that we went to visit them at Schneider Children’s Hospital, the parents, and I said to them, “I hope you will come to give birth to your next baby at Shaarei Tsedek, and we will see the closing of a circle.”
Narrator: Soon the couple will travel from this hospital to their home, the home where the tragedy occurred, but this time they will bring with them new life.
Shimon Gross: We don’t forget them. It’s every moment and every minute and every day. We think about them and they are with us in the home, this is not something that passes. This is not a compensation for what was. But this certainly gives strength to continue on and to see the good, to continue on.
