Wars are stupid and cruel, yet sometimes, so it would seem, inevitable.
On 25 April we commemorated Remembrance Day (Yom Hazikaron) for israeli fallen soldiers and also for victims of hostile acts. On this day, my thoughts wander to a cousin of mine - Marcel (Moshe) Calacuda. Marcel was killed in 1973, at the age of 26, in the war with the Egyptian Army, near the Suez Canal.
We were both born and grew up in the same remote, little town in northeastern Romania. We were not only cousins, but also neighbors; our families lived on the same street, in houses at close distance from each other.
Marcel was quite a naughty boy , but very loved for his energy, cheerfulness, and friendliness. He came to Israel as a lad of 16, after graduating in Romania from a vocational school. During the first year he devoted himself to learning the new language (hebrew). Next, he got drafted into the army. After finishing his military service, he started working in a mould foundry, at Haifa Bay.
He was successful in everything he did. : military tasks, work, sports (soccer mainly), public activity (for the benefit of the local youth, and the local council of the town) etc..
He got married in 1972, and wanted to build the family house 'with his own hands' . Well, this plan, as well as the plan of enlarging the family by bringing kids in the world, got ruined by the war that broke out a year later, in 1973.
Marcel was burried in the military plot at the Kfar Hasidim- Rechasim cemetery., in Haifa district, northern Israel.
'May your soul rest in peace, dear cousin Marcel !'