Ariel, the wife of Lieutenant Colonel Dor Ben Simhon, commander of Battalion 52 in the 401st Armored Brigade, who was killed in action in southern Lebanon, published a heartbreaking farewell message on Facebook. She recalled the first time she met Dor, writing: “Eight years ago I began at the IDF Tactical Command School. There were 120 men before me, and I wondered how there wasn’t even one ‘hot guy’ there for me. Then you came to present a lesson learned from a road accident you caused - an educational experience, and luckily it arrived. I said, ‘Oh, there he is.’ In the first year you only bothered me, and in the second year you chased after me like crazy (even if that isn’t exactly true, you’re not here to deny it, so I’m telling the truth now)."
Biton described their relationship as one they quickly realized was meant to be. “We started a wonderful relationship, and relatively quickly we knew it was ‘the one.’ We went through so much together until the proposal, here in your kibbutz. Of course, yes. Yes to that smile that lit up every face. Yes to your wisdom. Yes to the love that came in so many different ways. Yes to the beauty that was so deeply inside you and radiated outward. And yes to the kibbutznik who dared to get married in shorts and leather sandals."
She wrote that their years together were the happiest of her life. “As a fighting family, we were together through difficult periods, but in the long run you gave me the seven most beautiful years of my life. Seven years of real love, of innocence that is hard to explain, of building a home together, of creating a family. Now you have left me with the two most amazing daughters in the world. Maybe now I’ll stop getting upset when people tell me how much they look like you. I hope they will keep your presence alive with me every single day."
She thanked him for the person he was and the impact he had on her. "Thank you for making me a better person, for being a supportive husband, and for teaching me how to mow the lawn. Even as I write this, I know there are so many people here, because you simply couldn’t not fall in love with. Every weekend at home I had to share you with many people who loved you, and I’m glad you felt that love during your life." “You were a commander who was a people person; you were a commander of a mission. Your dedication inspires admiration, and your intelligence served this country well. I would walk around proudly and say that I’m the wife of a commander." (Read More)
