Avigail Daniel
We continued our journey in search of people who might remember Dr Chaim Kobrin in Tveria. As mentioned in the earlier chapter, one of them was the clinic nurse, Avigail Daniel. The family lost contact with Avigail in 1983 after Dr Kobrin’s death. We decided to search for her to find out if she might remember the time she worked with him at the clinic.
In 2015 my father contacted several people in Tveria asking them if they knew where Avigail was. Some of them mentioned seeing her a few years earlier walking in the market but they had no idea where she was now and if she was still alive.
We checked the local phone book of Tveria and found her name and address listed there. My father called the number several times, with no response. At a certain stage the line was disconnected. Where could she be?
Avigail Daniel, clinic nurse.
My father contacted his childhood friend from Tveria Menachem (Nachshon) Ronkin and asked him if he could help find Avigail. A few days later Nachshon called mentioning that he found Avigail in an elderly home in Tveria and sent him the contact details of the place.
The staff at the elderly home were told by Nachshon that Avigail would receive a call that day. She was 90 years old and suffered from slight dementia, therefore we were told not to expect too much of her. My father dialled the number he received. On the other side the assistant of the elderly home answered the phone and said that she will get Avigail. We waited anxiously to hear her voice. After a few minutes a woman’s voice answered the phone “Hallo”.
“Avigail, can you hear me, it’s Itzhak Kobrin, the son of Chaim Kobrin”
There was a long pause….then the woman’s voice again “Hallo….” followed by some words that were not understood. Obviously the connection was not good as he could not understand what she was saying and she could hardly hear him. After five minutes she hung up the phone and we were left speechless.
“What just happened? Was it her? What language did she speak Hebrew?”
My father called back. This time the connection was better and she sounded very emotional. She called him like in the old times: “Itzhak”. He told her he was planning to come and visit her and she responded: “come, come”.
My father was hopeful that she might remember some stories about his father from the old days.
In August 2015 he travelled to Israel in order to visit Avigail at the elderly home in Tveria. The management of the place expected his arrival, and brought Avigail to the entrance. My father barely recognised her after not seeing her for almost 40 years.
Isaac Kobrin & Avigail Daniel, 2015.
It was an emotional meeting for both of them. They went to a side room to talk, and in the meantime her nephew came and joined them. It seemed that Avigail had some small memories of Dr Kobrin, which were accurate. She mentioned the fact that he was walking with sandals and socks in the summer and that he had a big bag with all his medical supplies in it. She also remembered my cousin Orna who used to spend a lot of time at the clinic in Tveria after the death of her mother. However, she could not recall any specific stories or events. In contrast, her niece remembered his time at the clinic very well as Avigail took care of him as a child and he spent a lot of time with her at the work.
Malka and Chaim Kobrin with the Osmo family neighbours in Tveria, 1981. Dr Kobrin wearing a suit and a tie holding the doctor bag he always carried with him.
He clearly remembered her dedication and commitment to Dr Chaim Kobrin, the clinic and the patients. Avigail had a small room at the back of the clinic where she used to rest in the afternoons and during some occasions even sleep there over night. It was her second home. For her, Dr Kobrin was like family and the clinic was the centre of her life. It is unfortunate that she could not remember those time and that the connection with her was lost after Dr Kobrin’s death.
Did she recognise Itzhak, the son of Dr Chaim Kobrin during their face to face encounter? We are not sure. Perhaps we were a few years too late in searching for her, but at least we found the woman who spent almost 30 years working side by side with him.
Who else could remember Dr Kobrin? Perhaps the members of “Hapoel Tveria” soccer team? We decided to meet them and see what they remember from that time.
The search continues…
