Three women share how they cried out to Him… and felt His presence

Sometimes when we go through a crisis, we’re backed into a corner, with no way out other than turning to Hashem and begging Him to extricate us. Three women share how they cried out to Him… and felt His presence.

Miriam

M

iriam Stern had nine children, ranging in age from one to 19, when her 40-year-old husband, Eliyahu, was diagnosed with leukemia.

On a Sunday morning, the Sterns received the disconcerting results of alarming blood work. Miriam and her husband were called in, and Eliyahu was immediately sent to the hospital. “During that awful period, we were waiting on a few different possibilities, all of them devastating,” she says.

When the diagnosis arrived, it was a relief. Eliyahu was ill with an extremely treatable form of leukemia, which would “only” require noninvasive treatment. In fact, they were told by a frum oncologist: “Nobody asks for this illness, but if you were going to have to deal with one, this would be the one.”

With tremendous relief, Miriam and Eliyahu told their children what was going on. They were so grateful. This wasn’t going to take over their lives. He’d undergo treatments, and then life would return to normal.

Eliyahu went through the treatment protocol, with Miriam remaining strong and confident throughout. She wouldn’t allow this “cancer thing” to get in the way of her family’s happiness. She was running on adrenaline, not thinking much, but going through all the necessary motions to keep her family going during that difficult time.

But Hashem threw the Sterns a curveball, and Eliyahu was among the unfortunate three percent who didn’t respond to the prescribed “simple” treatment protocol. Despite their best efforts, the doctors couldn’t offer any subsequent strategy that would offer a clear pathway to remission. They could merely keep the cancer at bay.

And that’s when Miriam fell apart.