Ayala (Aylus) Hetzroni

Ayala was born when Kibbutz Be’eri was in it's early years, the first child of Yair and Margalit, two founding members of the kibbutz. She was a baby girl with brown eyes and a shy smile. Afterwards came Nitza, Avia, and Efrat, who grew to become a warm and close-knit family whose roots were planted deeply in the earth of Be’eri.

When Ayala and her friends started school, the name of their class was “Arava.” She received the nickname “Aylus” from her classmates, and it stayed with her afterwards. Her friends say she was a shy and quiet girl, who did everything thoroughly and helped without talking much. As was common in those days, she did her share of the kibbutz’s agricultural work, from working in the cotton fields to picking fruit in the orchards and groves. But before long, she found the place that suited her best: caring for children in the children’s home, where she would work for many years. This is where her special talent for forming a connection and a relationship with children of all ages came into play.

Ayala did her IDF service with several kibbutz friends – Dalia and Tzipi – which made adapting to the army much easier. For the group from Be’eri, serving alongside girls from the city revealed small but memorable differences between kibbutz and city life, including how unfamiliar communal showers were to those who had not grown up with them.

Ayala was placed in the IAF and dealt with electronic soldering. Sagi remembers her demonstrating the delicate handwork she had done in the air force, joining tiny electronic parts together with careful precision. She was proud that during her army service, she had used that skill to repair airplane parts - or, as she put it: “the spoke of the plane.”

As was then common, Ayala did a third year of national service at the newly established Kibbutz Eilot, which was then only 10 years old, and naturally became a nanny at the children’s home, which took her name: Gan Ayala. When she returned to Be’eri, she was a leading nanny in Oranim and Ofarim, and afterwards she worked for years with Yochai in Arazim. She could be seen throughout the kibbutz, pausing with the toddlers at every snail and puddle. She was a special and beloved nanny, who taught the children “to shout in a whisper,” and she continued to educate the mothers years after their children had moved on to other frameworks.

Ayala spent a year in Tel Aviv where she studied education at Kibbutzim College, and she also travelled for a year to work as an au pair in the United States, but her natural place was in the kibbutz kindergarten. When she returned to Be’eri, she became a head nanny in Gan Hatzav, in the era of the children’s home.

Aylus was the nanny of the early childhood age groups, and at a certain stage she also agreed to be the kindergarten coordinator. For the Shifroni Family, her sister Nitza's kids, Aylus was like a second mother, the one they called when they returned from a long journey outside the kibbutz and who they traveled with on the bus to “the big store” in Yad Mordechai to choose birthday presents.

In early 2000, she decided to work in the Be’eri printing press. There she worked in the PAC department - Production Activity Coordination. During this period, it suited her to be in the world of adults and to work efficiently with her characteristic quiet. But then a family tragedy shook her world. Her niece, Shira, Eva and Avia’s daughter, gave birth to twins - Liel and Yanai. Unfortunately, due to medical negligence, Shira was left with life-changing brain damage, and it became clear that she could not care for the children. The whole family joined forces to cope in the long-term: Avia and Eva cared for Shira, and Ayala took upon herself the raising of the children. Fate transformed Aylus, aged 61, into a full-time mother to infant twins. Nitza called the twins “nechyanim” - a Hebrew blend of the words for grandchildren and nephews, and Aylus became “savdoda,” a combination of grandmother and aunt. Grandparents Eva and Avia found their unique place within this construct, where Avia, for example, would wait every afternoon with the scooter, ready for every command in taking care of the children. Friends also took turns to help. But Ayala was the central figure in the life of the twins. Later she was legally appointed guardian to Liel and Yanai.

Aylus was an anchor and a beacon to her family, a model of dedication and responsibility, inclusive and giving of herself with love and without complaint. Raising the children was her life’s purpose, with endless patience and with her special love. She also had love for the rest of the family. She was a devoted “savdoda” to Sagi’s family and loved and cared for the children. In every moment spent with Aylus there was a feeling of endless love and acceptance. She always cared for the family and adjusted herself to each generation; she saved her special laugh for the little ones, and for the parents she was always the one to go to for advice and help. She contributed from her experience, in good spirits, calmly, with a smile. She would plead with the young generation: “Don’t do what I wouldn’t do,” but she also accepted it with understanding when they chose otherwise. That same responsibility and patience also shaped the way she cared for her parents, supporting them with endless devotion.

Alongside this she continued working in the printing press. At age 70, she transferred to the manual wrapping department and became the right hand of Bosmat. She took responsibility for things that required skilled hands - cutting, sticking, packaging, and, in general, finding simple magical solutions for problems that seemed complicated. In the corridors of the Be’eri printing press too, the family came first; Aylus would stop Sagi for a hug during every tour, no matter who he was with, and would say “I’m his aunt - and now you can continue.” Meanwhile the children grew, the future seemed calmer, and it was possible to sit for a little while to talk with friends or to go with them to a film workshop at Cinema City in Ramat Hasharon, to arrange flowers for festivals, and to think about renovating her home.

On October 7, Ayala was murdered together with Liel and Yanai. Today they are buried next to Grandpa Avia, who was also murdered that Shabbat.

May her memory be a blessing.