While Doni was alive, he touched so many people. The stories he left behind are like fingerprints on our lives

MYson Doni (Daniel Moshe) died when he was 19. Whenever I told him, “I love you!” he’d say, “Love you more!” He had lots of happy times, but he suffered from mental illness for years. From doctor to doctor, tefillah to tefillah, med to med, the journey was long and lonely. We tried everything we knew about, but it finally cost him his life.

While Doni was alive, he touched so many people. The stories he left behind are like fingerprints on our lives.

Three years later, on June 1, 2016, my daughter Sahra gave birth to a beautiful baby boy. He was named Moshe Nechemia. Maybe this little baby had a piece of Doni’s soul tucked inside him. He definitely had a lot of hopes, dreams, and tefillos accompanying his birth.

Just a few weeks after he was born, Moshe had tiny little shudders. Since it was different from anything she’d seen with her other babies, Sahra checked with a friend who was also a nurse, and felt reassured when her friend said, “That’s what babies do, it’s fine.”

But it wasn’t.