Dafna Meir, mother of 6, murdered in OtnielStabbed in her home
January 17, 2016: Dafna Meir, 38, of Otniel, was stabbed to death outside her home.
At about 5:30 in the afternoon, Dafna Meir was painting the front door to her home. Her eldest daughter, Renana, who heard her screams, ran to her aid, only to see the terrorist stab her mother repeatedly. She tried to fight off assailant, protecting the three children who were at home at the time. Renana screamed for help, and the terrorist fled. Dafna was prononced dead at the scene.
Dafna worked as a nurse in the neurosurgery department of Soroka Medical Center in Beesheba. She was also a pre-marital counselor for brides. Dr. Ahmed Nasser, who worked alongside her at the hospital, described her as his "best friend" in the department, always helpful, encouraging everyone. "She was a happy woman, joyful, optimistic, driven, responsible, loving," said a neighbor. Everyone in the settlement who was in pain knew they could call her 24 hours a day."
Dafna had lived in Otniel for 19 years. The town is where she met her husband, Natan, who was studying at yeshiva there, and they made their home there. In addition to their four biological children aged 11 to 17, she and her husband Natan fostered two young boys, aged 4 and 6. Dafna herself, with no immediate family, had been taken in to a family at the age of 13, after having moved around from institution to institution. Her dream was to take in children who have nothing and to give them a good life. Dafna told her adoptive mother Atara that when she decided to marry Natan, she made one condition: that no matter how many children they had, they, too, would foster other children.
Dafna had recently expressed her fears at the ongoing wave of terror, saying, "The situation is not easy and sometimes it feels like Russian roulette."
Dafna Meir was buried in the Givat Shaul cemetery in Jerusalem. She is survived by her husband Natan and their six children Renana, 17, Akiva, 15, Noa, 11, Ahava, 10, Yair, 6, Yaniv 4.
|
