Latest / Did I Write That?! / "Through Darkness I Saw Light": About the Book
Transcript
- Rebecca Azuelos Edited Interview: You're listening to Did I Write That? Featuring conversations with authors published under Antricha Press. They share the behind the scenes of the actual writing of the book, the things they wish they'd known, and what you need to know about the book that will soon be in your hands. I'm Adina Samuels, founder of Andresha Press, and I'm thrilled to introduce you to our newest author. Let's get to it. Rebecca, thank you so much for joining me today. It's a real pleasure to have you on the show. Thank you for having me, Adina. I'm very excited to start this interview. Yes, me too. Rebecca, before we get into your book, can you tell me a little about yourself? Well, my name is Rebecca Asvelos. I'm a mother of three beautiful children. I'm a grandmother and right now an author. Very true. Congratulations for that. I know you've put a lot of work into this book and Already I know it's been touching a lot of people. So let's get straight to it. Tell me about the book that you wrote. Well, the book that I wrote was is about hope, it's about faith, it's about resilience, and it's about never letting go, even if somebody tells you to. And this was your own personal experience that you wrote about, right? Yes. Can you share a little bit more about that? It's a story about my son, Ethanel, who suffered an asthma attack. ten years ago, almost ten years ago. And it's my journey with him in the hospital because as we enter the hospital together, I've tried to never let go of his hand and never let go of him. And this is the book is all about the beginning of the hospital entry until the end of the hospital, when we left the hospital. And it covers about six months, right? It's six months of you sitting by his side and putting all of your energy into him and you know, watching the community rise up with you. Exactly. It's six months of that. It's about the community who helped me through this grief and who held my hand throughout the journey. The journey of that tragedy that I was going through. Everything that I was going through. Exactly. And tell me a little about the writing. when did you start writing in this process? So three months after sitting by his side, I was talking a lot to him and decided that it would be time for me to write my emotion into paper, maybe a way for me to heal. I don't know what it was, but I wanted to write him a letter and I started to think about it. So in the hospital I was thinking about it a lot. And when Nitana passed away I was numb completely and COVID hit two years after and that gave me the opportunity for me to sit down and start writing my emotion and I wanted to write to him. So that's how I started the the book. Yeah, your book is really a love letter to your son and to all the people who were there for you in that extremely challenging time. So you began writing a few years after you had spent that time in the hospital. What was it like to I guess reaccess that that experience and have to kind of bring it back to life on paper? Very hard. Every letter that I was writing, tear was pouring down every syllable. It was very difficult for me to write this book. because I had to relive every single moment. And I also I put down all of his personal thing down and I was going through it one by one. And it was it was really, really difficult. But I had to do it. I had to do it because I wanted to share my story to the world. I wanted to share the story to other mothers that went through this who's going through a tragedy tragedy like this. And maybe my book will help her overcome pain or sorrow or thinks that it's over or it's the end. I wanted to let you know that there is always a light at the end of the tunnel. There is always light that shines through darkness. So when we think about why you wrote the book, it sounds like at first it sounded like something that you thought you needed to do. You just needed to get it out of your system. Like you felt this calling to write these letters to your son. While you were in the hospital and you wrote them down. But during the process, you faced a ton of challenges, emotional, kind of reliving all of that stuff. Tell me a little bit about who you want to read this book and a little more about why you wrote it. I don't understand the question. Sorry. No problem. The question is like now that this book exists, who do you want to pick it up and read it? Who is it for? It's for every mother, everyone who thinks that. There is no like they think they have failed in anything in their life. It's because it has faith and hope into this book. And even though that you think that your word is completely finished, it's not. Because there is always a way. There is always light at the end of a tunnel, like I was saying. Even through like through darkness, there is light. Always there is light through darkness. And that's the title of your book, right? Through darkness I saw light. Yeah. And tell me if you can, for you, what is that hope and faith and joy and and light look like for you today? For me today, my my joy is through the service of others. That's what my joy is. And whenever I do good deeds or do good things, I believe I feel the closeness of my son with me. And I think I did a good thing. I feel joy. So if this book is helping someone else and somebody else reach out to me and tell me you help me through it, that will be my joy. That will be my I I feel rewarded. And I know that we've talked about this a little bit already, but your book is already doing that, and I can imagine the outstanding impact it's gonna have on so many people. Can we talk a little bit about the faith element? how does that come through in your life and and in your book? My faith element is truly, you know, when you live in a hospital for six months, you have doctors telling you all kinds of diagnosis. And some people just believe into them. I was not. I believed that there was something deeper. Then what some somebody else will tell you. So I looked up and I looked to and I said all my my son's life was in God's hand. And that's all that's all I felt. And that's all I wanted to feel. Because everything else around me felt so dark and so completely I c how can I say exactly? I don't find the right word, but I felt like it was completely Finished, but I knew there was something beyond and I felt that there was something beyond the the normality of the the world. So I looked up and I said, No, my son's life is in his hand and I fought. I fought long and I fought hard and I fought for six months and thankfully I had six extra months to be by my son's side. And you accomplished some really remarkable things. Can you tell us a little bit about the story where in court you weren't there yourself because you were with Nitanel, but you had a whole community of people behind you, standing there for you. Can you tell us a little bit about that? The court process was the hospital gave us a few days to disconnect the life support of Netanel. But in Jewish law we are not supposed to disconnect. And I was the whole community wanted to fight for the right of humans' right of of humans' life and that's what happened. One talked to another one at the end, thousands of people rallied in court and thousand there were many, many lawyers that wanted to fight for this cause. It became something in university that they talk about. And in court also what they talk about. So they don't understand if life what is the meaning of life and until what point we know what's life and what's death. So Netanel's case became very big. That's why people rallied. Yeah. And as a result, the law changed, right? Or the the ruling changed and Netanel, yes. Yeah. Netanel the judge gave us a s gave us We we were able to keep Netanel on life support and also we were able to have all his care taken care of by the courts. But unfortunately Netanel passed away. The court was going and we were trying to get a precedent, we were trying to get a law passed through all through Ontario. But Netanel passed away and I would have hoped that something would have come up out of it, but maybe I would help another person. And I know that during COVID, people were calling me and were telling me that people were trying to disconnect. But when they would go to the to the doctor, they would say there is the the Wanu case. I don't think you should disconnect. And they were able, they were able to keep that person on life support. So you accomplished something huge for so many people. Exactly. Exactly. People from From me actually there was someone from England who called me and the same case will happen to her daughter. In her daughter they they would try to disconnect again the life support. Even the the the Pope from asked for one of the hospitals to take back the kids. He called me asking me what was the right, what could we do. And I always told everybody do not let go. We never know the outcome. We don't know the faith. We don't know what happens at the end. So your life is not determined by a yes or a no. There is always it's beyond. So in this process, you became a doctor and a lawyer and an advocate and you know everything. Exactly. That's the role of a mother. We wear many hats. So this time I was wearing I was his eyes and I was his His advocate, so I needed to fight for him. Yeah. And getting a phone call like that a couple years later from someone who's in a similar situation, like how does how did that feel? I was overwhelmed that his story that his story went beyond. And I wanted to help. I wanted to be there to to ask to to to help him and telling him not to give up and The story went on to something else, but at that moment I know I was able to give him some strength. And maybe that was my calling. And when you say now that the way that you feel like Netanel is with you and the the the light that you see comes in service of others, what kind of things do you do to help other people today? Today I do a lot of helping the homeless. We do that every year in his memory because Netanyahu used to do that. I do a lot of help. I help a lot of the community, like they did help me, so it's a way for me to pay back. But it does help a lot of a a mother who is in mourning. It does help a lot to move forward with the story to help other people. It does help us a lot. Yeah, absolutely. And looking now that your book is written and you know you can hold it in your hands, we'll be releasing it very shortly. Tell me about what that feels like. I imagine it's a lot of emotions at once because it holds so much pain and so much heartache, but at the same time so much strength. Can you try to articulate a little bit about what it feels like to hold it in your hands? Truthfully, it's I'm not sure yet because for me, until I know someone got something out of it and helped that person was helped along the way, that will make me feel very rewarded. Mm-hmm. Well, I can tell you already, Rebecca, just me, if it counts. You do count counts as much. I've learned a lot about what strength looks like. And what family does for each other when they need each other and what love looks like and your unwavering hope and belief, even when you had no idea what the future held and all those nights, you know, were there on your own with Natanel, but you weren't alone, you were together. I learned I learned just how fierce your love really is. And it was a remarkable thing to read. And then the strength of writing it as well, which is why I spent so much time asking you questions about that. Because in the writing of it, you're reliving it, you're experiencing it again. All of these memories are coming up. I know the editing was very challenging because you want to be objective about making it a good book, but these are all of your memories and your expressions. So I think you're probably one of the strongest people that I've ever met, Rebecca. Thank you. Thank you very much. It's my children made me the person who I am truly. They give me they give me a lot of strength and they they they push me forward a lot and it helps. Tell me a little about your kids and about your your grandson. My grandson, his name is Netanel. He's a beautiful little five month old baby. Very happy, very full of life. He's giving me a lot of joy now. I've started to smile again since he was his he came to our life. And Metanel, who is always in my heart and in my soul, and I find him always in my heart. And I also and then I have Danielle and Noah who are giving me a lot of strength, a lot of love, a lot of compassion, and always behind me. Protection. Beautiful. Well, Rebecca, thank you so much. First of all, for talking to me about your story today and also for writing it down. I know that it wasn't easy and you know, going through the process of getting it published and making sure every detail is correct was a whole journey of its own. But I assure you that this book will have I'm sure more than the impact that you're that you're even imagining it will. So you've done a huge service in writing it down and sharing your story. And I know that Nitanel is watching this process and so proud of his mom. So proud of you. And yeah, you're you're you're making a big difference. So thank you for doing the work that you do. And thank you, Adina, for helping me publish this book. My pleasure. It's it's really an honor. Just before we end, is there a last message that you wanna send to your readers? Anything you want to leave them with? Never to give up. And there will always A light at the end of a dark path. Beautiful. Well, Rebecca, thank you so much for your time. And I'm excited to get this book out into the world and into the hands of every reader who needs it. Thank you. That wraps up another episode of Did I Write That? featuring the outstanding authors published under Andrash Press. If you want to learn more, check out our website, Andreshhat Press.com. Follow me on LinkedIn. Let's make sure to get the stories that the world needs to hear out into the world.