My heart is broken. into pieces. i am choking up, and my tears fall like hard rain from stained clouds. I am disappointed, devastated, and deeply hurt. 

This is my friend, my buddy, my teammate, my neighbor, my inherited son. This is Tomer, a delightfully positive, genuinely kind person, incredibly bright, supremely hardworking and talented! 

We last saw each other, as usual, on the volleyball court, prancing, jumping, laughing, and said our typical goodbyes with a cheer and a hug, each getting into his car, and driving home. Often, as was the case sometime a week before last, we meet up moments later on the road, one car after another waiting for the traffic light to turn green, to enter our neighborhood. i remember with my fingers giving him a sign of a heart, to which in the rear view mirror he did the same. And then he turned and entered the underground parking lot. It was a few days later, on the following Saturday, in the early morning, that this wretched ugly indescribable war began, and Hamas attacked, that i immediately followed his whereabouts in WhatsApp: 'last seen Saturday at 3:13AM', and as each day passed it remained the same. I was hoping, all who knew him were hoping he would be 'active' and we would be reassured. Each day was a new hope, a possibility, until today, when the terrible news surfaced. 

Tomer was killed in the South of Israel. All who knew him are gravely saddened. Needless to say, words cannot express this sorrow, nothing at the moment can comfort this pain.

His incredible smile and insurmountable affection for life will forever be embedded in my memory, and will remain with me until i myself am no more.