Responsible Storytelling - Hadar Zak reflects on loss on October 7th and the impact of OneFamily
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00:00October 7th changed everything about my life, my existence on this earth.
00:05The terrorist stole from me my father, Itay.
00:10He was a hard-working man.
00:13He taught me the value of family since the day I was born.
00:18He always told me that the priority of his life is family, studies, and then friends.
00:27And I will teach my children the same way.
00:31My mother, Eti, the prettiest woman on earth.
00:37No offense to my girlfriend, but she was.
00:42She was the best mom ever.
00:44She took care of me and my siblings in the best possible way.
00:50And my little brother, Sagi, who was only 14 years old.
00:55He was the best part of my life and my favorite dancer ever.
01:01I miss them dearly every day.
01:05After the attack, I was evacuated to the Dead Sea with the surviving members of our kibbutz.
01:12One family has been constant source of support for which I am deeply grateful.
01:20They first reach out when we are sitting shiva in our family.
01:25In our connection, at that level, supposed, grow even stronger when Ela Danon,
01:31the conduction of the orphan from the 7th of October,
01:34invited me to take part in all the activities and the support groups that had offered.
01:42Meeting Ela surely been the most rewarding part of my experience with one family.
01:50When we got together, I can share with her what is on my mind.
01:57The daily struggles, the intense loneliness, the dread of celebrate even a single holiday without my family.
02:06Every meeting with Ela and every phone call with her gave me the strength to trust her and one family
02:15and know I will always have someone by my side.
02:19When Ela invited me to the therapy ski trip to Andorra, I felt extremely hesitated.
02:29I wasn't sure that I was ready to go anywhere or do anything fun like that.
02:34And in any case, I had never done ski before.
02:37But after everything they had already done for me, I felt like giving it a try.
02:43In our group, there were five veterans surviving orphans and five new orphans from the October 7.
02:52All who lost both of their parents.
02:55On the drive to the ski, we all share our stories and thought what will happen
03:02and expectation for the trip and for our future.
03:07On our first day of skis, I was placed in the beginner groups with an Australian ski instructor.
03:14After the first few hours of skiing, we all met up and not only share our ski experiments with one another,
03:21but also continue to give each other support.
03:25The strong decision of the older survived to support the younger strongly advantaged
03:31and it was my favorite things about the trip and in one family.
03:36That the older take care of the younger, even in grief.
03:43Just like one family event in Israel, the group convinced led by Ela,
03:48every evening on the ski trip gave me the strength to keep improving my skiing
03:53and even move up to the advanced group.
03:57I no longer felt so alone.
04:00Somebody was really listening to me.
04:03The careful planning and the smooth running on the trip and the constant support from the staff
04:09all helped me focus on healing and skiing without being distracted by everyone going around me.
04:19It feels like skiing has become a metaphor for my life these days.
04:23With every physical difficulty and a couple of missions representing the emotional side of my life in a way.
04:32Every time I fell on the ski slopes, I got up again and it filled me a little bit stronger and it taught me a lot.