The pandemic brought them together: Elior and Leah Ben Baruch have an unusually moving "how we met" story.
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"When my grandfather, Yehuda, was ill with COVID, his condition got worse, and he was hospitalized on the COVID unit at Hadassah Ein Karem," says Elior, 29, an officer in the Jerusalem District Police's Temple Mount Unit.
"That was during the first wave. There was a lot of concern about transmission, and we couldn't go in and visit Granddad. We were worried about him, and got daily updates from the devoted staff who were caring for him.
"Luckily, my father heard about a relative of someone he knew from France who was working as an X-ray technician at Hadassah Ein Karem and was helping X-ray the COVID patients' lungs. We contacted her and asked her to take care of Granddad and give him support. That technician, who has a huge heart, threw herself into the mission. We didn't know that her willingness to help would end with her joining the family," Elior said.
Leah, 26, added, "Grandpa Yehuda was cared for by the staff. Every time I'd go up to him to see how he was, and update the family. I got to know a charming man and a close family."
When Yehuda was discharged from the hospital, he still needed to be on oxygen, and the family asked Leah to keep helping him.
"I got to know everyone better, and very quickly the connection to Elior turned into something else, to a story of our own, to love," Leah says.
Elior smiles: "It was a crazy time – Leah was always working on the COVID unit at Hadassah, and I was with the police. We were working around the clock to cut off chains of infection. Who would have believed that at a time like that, such a serious relationship could form? Still, it looks like love conquers all. Even the craziness of COVID."
Leah and Elior married in December 2020 in a small ceremony, and Grandpa Yehuda was under the chuppa to bless the couple.
"Leah is pregnant, and we're expecting a baby girl," Elior says. "When she grows up, we'll tell her how COVID brought mom and dad together."
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