A British Jewish woman who was murdered by Hamas terrorists has given the gift of life to five people with her donated organs.
Before the anniversary of her death tomorrow, Lucy Dee’s husband met three of those she has saved. School teacher Lucy, 48, and her daughters Maia, 20, and Rina, 15, were shot dead on holiday, after leaving their West Bank home for a break by the Sea of Galilee.
The two men who carried out the attack were later killed by Israeli forces. Lucy’s kidneys, lungs, liver and heart were donated and husband Leo, a British rabbi, has travelled to meet three recipients. One of those, Palestinian carpenter Ahmed Suleyman, 39, is now father to a daughter. He had previously given a plaque to Leo, with the message: “If you save a life it’s as if you save the world.”
At his home near Nazareth, Ahmed, who received a kidney from mum-of-five Lucy, cradled his baby daughter and said: ”I would never have seen her, if it was not for the Dee family.”
Leo, 53, told Ahmed: “You are a blessing to me because part of my wife lives on inside you.”
The widower also visited two Jewish Israeli women, Mati Aguzi, 59, and Lital Vilensi, 51. Mati had been struck down with lung disease. Now, after receiving Lucy’s lungs, she said: “One day I want to dance again, that’s my biggest passion.”
Lital received Lucy’s heart and has made a pendant engraved with the donor’s smiling face alongside her own. She told Leo: “Lucy’s soul is inside me. I feel freer and happier, more spiritual and more giving. I feel that I receive messages from her. After five years of feeling so ill, now I can laugh.”
Leo said: “There is some spark from Lucy’s body or soul that now has some effect on Lital, and that’s wonderful.”
The rabbi, who has two surviving daughters and a son – Keren, Tali and Yehuda – moved from London with his family to Efrat, near Bethlehem, in 2014. He said: “The killings of my family can be seen as the first shots in what took place exactly six months later: the invasion by Hamas of our country’s kibbutzes and a town across the border from Gaza.”
He says he would be willing to meet the families of the men who murdered his wife and children. “I’m not bitter. I want all the loss of life, including what happened to my family, to lead to some longer-term peace.
“In life and in her death and in what she has given since, Lucy would have wanted that.”