Alter Mordechai Morel wasn’t supposed to live to his first birthday. But for the next 36 years, he defied the odds. Knowing any day could be his last, he made every minute count
Photos: Family Archives
Illustration: Menachem Weinreb
The young couple was in the process of redoing their bathroom, and as often happens with construction, things were not going quite as planned. “It’s so annoying,” the wife complained to her husband. “The vanity didn’t come out right, and the whole project is costing so much more than we expected.”
The husband was contemplative. “Is either of us sick?” he asked. “Is either of us in the hospital? Then we don’t get upset about this.”
For any other young couple, the husband’s words might have been a high-minded, but largely futile, attempt at diffusing his wife’s frustration through philosophical reasoning. But for this particular couple, Alter Mordechai and Rivky Morel, these words were no mere platitudes, since both had been seriously ill all their lives — he with a heart condition, she with cystic fibrosis.
Alter Mordechai knew, better than anyone else, that any day could be his last. And that, perhaps, is why he enjoyed every day of his life so much.
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