Only eighteen months ago, the Marciano family mourned the loss of their 24-year-old daughter and sister, Michal Bayazi. Michal, who had just been promoted to her new position as a senior secretary, was killed in a bus bombing at Jerusalem’s Patt Junction.
On Sunday, family and friends surrounded the hospital bed of Michal’s younger brother Meir in Shaare Zedek hospital, shaking their heads in disbelief that the same fate could befall one family yet again.
Twenty-three-year-old Meir, the youngest of the seven Marciano siblings, was one of sixty who were injured that morning when a suicide terrorist exploded his bomb aboard a number 14 bus en route to the city’s center where Meir worked as a waiter. Seven people were killed in the deadly attack.
Wedged in a neckbrace while awaiting the results of his X-rays, Meir looked stunned and confused by the commotion around him. He sustained shrapnel wounds to his face and legs; was suffering acute pains in his knee; and heard a constant buzzing in his ears. His wounds have so far been defined as “light to moderate.”
“As far as we are concerned, it’s a miracle,” said his sister Yael. “The fact that he is alive, breathing, moving and alert brings the family joy.” The family said Meir was badly traumatized by the ordeal, especially in light of his sister’s untimely death.
The Marciano family is a study in the sort of victims of terror rarely covered by media. While attention is naturally focused on the dead and dying, victims’ support groups point to the personal suffering that often affects those who may not even be counted as victims. Michal’s mother Sari has been unemployed since Michal’s death due to chronic health problems, including high blood pressure and diabetes exacerbated by severe anxiety. Meir’s ride to work was the exception, since other family members are too scared to board a bus and fear entering public places. Even before Sunday’s horror, Sari did not rule out leaving Israel for Canada where she has relatives. The Marciano family immigrated to Israel from France in 1969.
The family’s religiously observant upbringing, their strong faith and high hopes all may have contributed to their ability to withstand the tragedy of Michal’s loss. “I have no doubt that Michal was watching over Meir,” Yael said. “She probably said to herself, ‘I’m not going to let another one of us go. My parents could not withstand it.’”
The family views this day as the day on which Meir was reborn. Sari strongly believes that Meir’s namesake, the legendary Rabbi Meir the Miracle-Maker, gave her son good fortune. “We thank the Maker of the universe that He allowed Meir to live,” she said.
But faith notwithstanding, the situation weighs heavily on the public. “Do I have to look over my shoulder every time I get on a bus?” Sari said. “Do I have to say ‘Hagomel’ [the Jewish blessing of thanks upon emerging from a dangerous situation] every time I reach home in one piece?”
Yael believes that the public cannot carry on living under the current situation. Terror victims such as the Marciano family do not pretend to hold the solution to the situation. Many, like Yael, believe that the important decisions should be left for the high-ranking people who “know better than us.” But, she added, “They must reach a decision,” she said.