A Cure
There is no telling why things happen or why you meet and find a new friend.
A little over seven years ago, when I was diagnosed with breast cancer, I was asked if, rather than surgery, I would like to participate in a trial of cyroablation. That is the means by which a frozen needle is inserted directly into the tumor, causing it to shrivel up, die and slough out of your body in routine fashion.
Dr. Kenneth Tomkovich was the gutsy Freehold radiologist who dared to try something new and convinced me easily enough I should be the first in the state to try out this painless, easy, 28 minute procedure I could even watch while it was underway.
Since it was new, a representative from the company was also present to observe the procedure; because the doctor infused me with so much confidence and the procedure requires no anesthesia, we chatted easily in the room during the procedure. I jokingly warned Dr. Tomkovich he better know what he was doing, because I was leaving for Israel with a group from my church in two weeks.
That night, the company representative called me on the phone and asked if I was really going to Israel.
It was then I learned that IceCure, a company in Caesarea, Israel, had created the breast cryoablation needle and procedure, and since it was still undergoing trial in the US, had never met anyone who had it done. Would I be interested in meeting them when I was in Israel?
To be able to meet the company that cured me of breast cancer without pain, surgery, chemo, radiation or even a day in the hospital? You bet I would!
Once in Jerusalem, I connected with the company who had been awaiting my arrival and made arrangements for them to pick me up at the hotel and take me to their firm. We had to alter the original plans where we were going to meet, since the hotel where we were staying was in the Palestinian section and my new Jewish friends could not enter there.
So it was a 90 minute drive by one of the Ice Cure employees who came to pick me up and take me to Caesarea. While enjoying the magnificent area and history we were traveling through, we became friends, and I got another glimpse into how friendly and nice the Israeli people are.
Once in Ceasaria at the Ice Cure office, I met the entire staff…most of them women in the 30s and 40s, all friendly, all anxious to meet an American, all so happy to hear how their invention had cured me.
I met the entire staff, toured their facility and watched a simulation of the procedure I had just two weeks before. We laughed, we chatted, we marveled at modern-day medicine, and the very wonderful Tlalit, one of the officers of the small but very intelligent firm, and others, then took me for dinner in a wonderful outdoor restaurant directly on the Mediterranean. After more talk, more opportunity to get to know each other, and more thanks from me, we took photos and a driver brought me back to my hotel .
Since then, several of the Ice Cure employees and myself have kept in touch via e-mail and Facebook, all happy we had made new friendships. And they cheered louder than anyone else every year when my annual checkups showed Ice Cure had done its job, I am free of cancer.
Tlalit and I continued our e-mails since that trip to Israel. I saw how her company grew, how trials in other countries of this wonderful cancer cure were advancing and being accepted.
I ventured into the stock market simply because I had the chance to own a little piece of this company that cured me of cancer so easily. It’s still a struggling company, but it’s an Israeli company. That means it’s loaded with intelligent medical men and scientists, it’s dedicated to Improving life, and it’s a company that even weighs heavily on a female staff to accomplish all it has done.
I’ve followed Tlalit as she has gone from country to country, the professional, yet warm and friendly woman who works so hard to share the magic Ice Cure offers.
While all of America is grieving over the brutal and savage attack on a the people of nation whose primary resource is the intelligence of its people, not the rich oil fields of its surrounding neighbors, my thoughts are with the few individuals I have met there, the warm, loving and hard working intelligent people who not only cured me of cancer but delighted in showing me how they do it.
I cannot fathom how these warm-hearted and life-loving people can comprehend mindless people who are not only bombing homes and hotels, but also kidnapping soldiers, grandmothers and babies.
Then I saw on Facebook the sorrowing pleas of another Israeli woman. She had a photo of her son on Facebook, and a tearful and emotional plea to help her find her son; he was among the missing. A handsome Israeli, somewhere perhaps in his 20s or early 30s, all of a sudden missing.
His mother is a friend of my friend Tlalit . I could feel her grief.
So I wrote my friend Tlalit an e-mail to express my thoughts and prayers. She wrote back within hours. I was shocked. With all that her nation, her city, her family is undergoing, this gracious lady took the time to respond. And with that stalwart Israeli brave spirit, she did not elaborate on the grief she was feeling; she did not mention what her friend was going through. She did not show her own pain.
She simply wrote
Dear Muriel,
thank you for your kind words of concern and encouragement. Situation is terrible.
We are safe .
Praying for better days soon 🙏🏻
Best,
Tlalit
Please pray for my friends in Israel
