Our Little Angel - Chaya

This week our special friend Chaya Shpalter passed away. She was one of the most incredible people I have had the pleasure of knowing.  She touched more people in her 11 years then most could. We loved her and we will miss her terribly.

Here I sit with my pen and paper, trying to put a broken heart to words. We moved into an apartment in Los Angeles just under two years ago. Right across the hall from Chaya and her family. Chaya and my daughter Chava became friends rather quickly. They got that life is full of challenges and there was no pretending here. They also got that being happy and positive made everything better and more meaningful. Chaya came over every Shabbos and became part of our family. When Yitzi came home from the hospital he was hooked up to a ventilator 24/7. Most of the kids were quite intimidated by this. Not Chaya, she just marched in with her beautiful smile to visit him. She came every Shabbos and together with my daughter sang songs and made dances for Yitzi. They called it their "show". Sometimes other little girls would join in, but always Chaya and Chava. When my daughters were not in the mood of entertaining my husband she would jump up and say, "Let's do a show!" She saw how tired I was and made it easy for the girls to spend time entertaining. We had to put my husbands beard in a pony to keep away from the tubes, Chaya walks in and takes one look. With a twinkle in her eye she says "Rockin beard". Yitzi twinkles right back at her. Chaya was not just my daughters' friend, she was my husband's friend and we all loved her for it.
For the past month, my kids have had the Chicken pox. I kept them locked inside so nobody else would get it and in the process, they couldn't see Chaya. We had no idea how bad things were. When we heard that Chaya had returned to the world of truth, we all cried bitterly. But no one as hard as Yitzi. He cried for hours and days. He cried out to HaShem "How could this happen?  Why Does HaShem continuously break us?"
I don't have words of strength or inspiration. I am heartbroken. But I am also so grateful. We got to know an angel.