Yael Or-Li paints a heartbreaking picture of life as a reservist's wife in wartime Israel. Her husband Oded, a guitar craftsman, had to shut down his independent business when the war broke out. "He simply told me, 'I can't keep the shop open because I never know when the next call-up will come."
But it's their daughters - Alma, 8, and Ofir, 5 - who bear the deepest scars. "Every morning they text their father the same message: 'Daddy, don't die. We're waiting for you at home,'" Yael shares in an emotional interview on Kalman Liberman's radio show on Kann News.
"My daughter's grades are slipping. The girls wake me up at night, terrified that a terrorist might break in or that sirens might sound," says the Har Gilo resident.
Oded, serving with Battalion 8110 in northern Gaza, already has his next reserve duty scheduled for April-June. "That's nine months a year our girls will be without their father. They need their dad here, present in their lives."
The new reality has pushed Yael to get a gun license. "The questions our girls ask cut like a knife," she admits. "When my daughter asks me during carpool, 'What do I do if there's a siren?' - these aren't things I ever imagined my children would have to deal with."
As a member of 'Mitmanvrot', a support group for reservists' families, Yael advocates for broader military service participation. "If more people serve, Oded won't need to be away seven months a year," she explains. "This isn't a reality we should have to live with."
Ynet contributed to this article.
