For 11 years I learned how to raise my children, and human relations, one hour a week at the Adler Institute in the most beautiful way. Then I studied English for six years once a week. I can read, write and speak. Then I had a knee replacement, which thanks to that I managed to decorate the house with glassware, clay, wooden boxes and lots of bowls and plates and flower vase for seven years. After that I went to study the art of beading. I made necklaces, bracelets, rings and earrings. I sold anything you can think of. Everything. Donuts, cookies, food, cakes. My husband worked for the Municipality of Petaḥ Tikva and earned very little. It wasn’t even enough to eat. Slowly the children grew up and got married and we were left alone. Like two loving brothers, we lack nothing, and we thank God for everything. I interviewed and wrote stories of our village elders. We miss nothing, everything is good and beautiful.

I raised my brothers. I am the eldest sister. My name is Sima and they would call me Simḥa (Joy) in Moroccan. I had two brothers growing up, Shimʿon and my late younger brother, Shalom. When I was six, my mother had to give birth and she told me “I am going to bring you a little sister. Sima! Take care of your brothers and the house." I wanted to shower my brothers and there was no water in the taps. When the night came even then there was no water. We went to sleep with the family who lived nearby. When we returned in the morning the whole house was full of water, while the threshold maintained it from flowing outside. My mother and father were expected to be home that day with the new baby. I was very scared of my father's reaction that he might hit me because I'm irresponsible. When they got home, father saw all the mess and hit me, but mother gave me a bag of candy.

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.

My eldest daughter was 26 months old. Then we started building our house. We also worked outside, I was cleaning and my husband worked in tar at The Municipality of Petaḥ Tikva. I gave birth to two daughters and two sons. I raised them without a car, without a phone, without anything. When I had to go to a parent meeting, I would take a ride with someone. We did everything on our own. I would clean people's houses. To help make a living I would also buy fruit from the people of the moshav, Rinatya and Mazor: grapes, apples, persimmons and more. I made compote, jams and liqueurs. My kids grew up, went to school and university. Our youngest daughter went to study art photography at the University of Jerusalem.

I attended primary school and was very studious. The principal approached my late mother and begged her to send me to continue my studies. The principal added and said, "Sima could be a school principal." My late mother did not want to, "she should get married" she told him, "and not study", and so I married at the age of 17. My husband was 22 years old when we got married. My husband was from moshav Rinatya and I was from Safed. As a child, I was stuttering, and did not speak similarly to others. I had a hard time talking and no man wanted me. The Baba Sali, from my late father's family, came to our house for Shabbat. My late father asked him to bless me so I will get married. He blessed me and that very month I got married. My husband's aunt knew me from Safed’s market; she came to my husband and said to him: "There is a nice girl, from a good family, and if you want I will introduce you to her and you will marry her." He agreed. "Even though she has a difficulty speaking – I want her." He came to me and I told him "it's hard for me to speak, you don’t want me – go away and that's it". He replied, "I want you the way you are." He came into my house, and within a month we were married. We lived in Safed for four and a half years. After two years of marriage I was not pregnant. Baba Sali came to our house for the second time and my father asked him to bless me. "I want you to bless my daughter to have a son or daughter." That month I was pregnant with my eldest daughter.