Which mother has not felt that twinge of panic when their toddler goes missing momentarily?
You turn your head for a second, and a little one can make a quicker getaway than students exiting a classroom at the sound of a recess bell. Almost always, children are thankfully found unharmed – they climbed behind the sofa, they hid in the closet, or they ran to the next aisle at the supermarket... Shauli Mordehai was a typically active toddler who enjoyed the disappearing act. So it followed that his house was extra, extra “child-proofed” with all the safety mechanisms available at the time. And it goes with out saying that there was ALWAYS at least one adult watching Shauli, his twin, Daniella, and their three-year-old sister, Eveline. Usually, it was two or three adults on call.
The Mordehai household continued its “active duty” watching the twins, until one day, the unthinkable happened. Who could have imagined that a little boy not even two years old could UNLOCK and OPEN a sliding glass door – in the space of a few seconds that the caregivers focused attention away. That sliding glass door, unfortunately, led to an unused, backyard built-in swimming pool. The pool was secured with a taught tarp, but one small area had become loose. Shauli followed a ball that fell under the tarp, and then he fell into the pool, where a few inches of rain water deprived him of life-giving oxygen.
This book chronicles Shauli’s life following the accident, and shows how a “regular family” developed super-human strength. The Mordehais, along with an amazing cadre of volunteers, never gave up hope, and never wavered in their immutable faith in the Master Healer.
