Major Omri Chitiat asked his wife to move on with her life if he died - four days before his heart stopped • The corona gave the last push for the song to come out in his memory
"A beautiful day at the end of January, beautiful days pass. A farewell kiss, do you see the end?"
On Friday, in late January 1996, Major Omri Chitiat, a 26-year-old F-16 pilot, approached his new wife Bashmat and told her that if something happened to him he wanted her to continue living. Four days later he was found dead. Now, 25 A year later, at the initiative of his widow, a special and moving song was released in his memory.
"Omri died close to the assassination of Rabin," Bashmat Roe-Prinz (Chitiat) tells "Israel Today" about one of the last moments they spent together.
"On Friday we went shopping at Dizengoff Center in Tel Aviv, near our apartment, and suddenly he told me that even if something important happened to him I would go on living. I asked him why he was talking about it at all, since he was still young, but in retrospect, that conversation and his request helped. I really want to continue living. "
Omri was born to Chaya and Shaul Chitiat, a brother to Gilad.
He grew up in Ramat Hasharon and from a young age dreamed of becoming a pilot.
In high school he met Basmat who would later become the love of his life.
"He was a year above me," she says, "we met when I was in 10th grade, we were friends for several years."
In 1988 he enlisted in a pilot course and later served as a fighter pilot.
During his service he participated in a series of raids and attacks in Lebanon.
After Basmat was discharged from her military service, she and Omri became a couple and in 1995 were married.
Even half a century away, it is still difficult for her to talk about it in the past tense.
"He was a lovely man," she says in a voice choked with tears, "he was humble with a shy smile and shy eyes radiating kindness. He had a charm and although he was a quiet man he was surrounded by friends and magnetized people to him. He also had a backbone and one who knows what "He wants from himself and where he wants to go. He had wisdom from a young age that only today I understand better. Omri was also a very optimistic person who knew how to pardon and always thought of the other and wanted the good of others."
During this time he instructed and commanded old and young pilots, and together with his new wife planned their future.
Then death knocked on their window without any foreshadowing.
"On the day he died, I enrolled him in law school," Bashmat recalls with pain. "That day I felt that I was the one who was going to die after skidding with the motorcycle. At that time I did not know he had died. I did not see it coming."
On Wednesday, January 30, 1996, Omri fell while fulfilling his duty. While leading his subordinates to a physical examiner and after assisting one of the soldiers in his run, he suddenly collapsed and his heart stopped beating. Expected him. "
Equipped with Omri's unplanned will, Bashmat decided, along with the intense pain that has not left her to this day, to continue with her life.
She remarried to her partner's best friend, Ronen, and together they are raising their four children, Roi and Ratam, 21, Ofri (19) and Inbar (13) in Moshav Ein Vered in the heart of the Sharon.
Bashmat (50) did start a new family, but for a moment she did not leave behind her fallen partner.
"I was very enveloped after Omri passed away," she emphasizes, adding that "over time, widows are somewhat forgotten. Some even get angry or raise an eyebrow that a widow decides to go on living. On the one hand, society tells widows that they need to be strong and sometimes looks askance at The choices she makes. Society needs to understand that bereavement crushes everyone and everyone copes in their own way and even if I try to blossom, smile and rejoice, it does not mean that it is not difficult for me. I know criticism comes from a good place but I would like society to be a little less judgmental ".
For a long time she wanted to commemorate the memory of Omri in a unique way, but did not dare to do so, until the Corona period gave her the boost she needed.
She first turned to the writer and poet Renana Lisch, whom she knew while her husband was serving in the Air Force and commanded the 117th Squadron. "It was clear to me that Renna would write the song. "In the song. My children were partners as well as my partner, Ronen, who was very supportive because Omri is part of him and part of my home. In the end, the song represents Omri and illustrates the deep connection and love that existed between us."
After the songwriting process was over, she turned to Yahel Doron, whose father commanded a squadron, and after he finished writing the melody, he led her to the person chosen to perform the song, Sivan Talmore.
Yes.
She is also the daughter of a former pilot.
"It was not intended from the beginning," Basmat explains of the fact that the entire song was built and performed on the purity of the Air Force family, "but it crystallized over time and there is something very symbolic about it."
The song "End of January" was also performed by Basmat's daughter, 19-year-old Ofri, who did not know her mother's ex-partner, but he is also present in her life.
"It was clear to me that Ofri would play the song because Omri was very present at home and the children were exposed to pictures and stories about him. For me, it is completely closing the circle."
"January has come again, she is sad again. Time also leaves, wounds that have no answer but she is not alone and there is enough."
Beshmat, who notes that throughout the years she has been assisted and supported by the IDF Widows and Orphans Organization, it is important to strengthen women who have lost their spouses during their military service. She shares: "There is no right or less right.
I believe that each one knows in her heart what is right for her, and how it is right for her to continue, I would tell them to listen to White and be true to themselves.
Believes that the spouse who was killed also trusted and cared for them, that's how it is when you love. "