Chavik Segal, 78: Great-grandmother expressed love in ‘small gestures’

Chava “Chavik” Segal, 78, was murdered by Hamas terrorists next to her home in Moshav Netiv Ha’asara on October 7.

Chavik, who lived in a unique home made of wood that lacked a reinforced room, ran for the backyard bomb shelter when the rocket fire began. Inside the shelter, she was shot dead in a hail of bullets by Hamas terrorists who had infiltrated the border town.

She was buried on October 19 in Kibbutz Ginegar in the Jezreel Valley. She is survived by her five children, Adi, Tzur, Noa, Hila and Ron, as well as 14 grandchildren and one great-granddaughter. She was predeceased by her husband, Yigal.

According to a state eulogy, Chavik was raised in Kibbutz Ginegar, which is also where she met Yigal, her childhood sweetheart. After having their first two children, they decided to move to the Sinai Peninsula, settling in the settlement of Sadot just across the border from Rafah in 1972, where the couple’s next three children were born.

The family remained there for a decade until the settlement was evacuated in 1982 as part of the peace accord with Egypt, something Chavik’s loved ones said was a painful transition from which she never quite recovered.

Chavik was colorful and full of life, the eulogy notes, with an artistic soul she devoted to singing, drawing, sculpture, dancing, knitting and sewing. She had a close relationship with Bilha Inon, who was murdered that same day along with her husband, and the pair created mandala drawings together. She was also a dedicated swimmer who hit the pool daily.

Her friend Smadar Harpaz Saad described her on Facebook as “Chavik, who knew how to fix a torn sock, to replace a fallen button, to nicely wrap up the item she embroidered for a grandson or granddaughter with colorful thread and include a note.”

“Chavik to my shock is no longer here. But I have a little bit of Chavik in every one of her wonderful children, who are close to my heart like brothers and sisters, and in every one of her grandchildren, and even a bit in me… Her modesty. Her brevity. Her love expressed through actions and small gestures.”

Her son, Ron, wrote online that the family quotes Chavik and Yigal “all the time. You were together more than 50 years, I hope your souls are carrying out a heavenly reunion.”

“You left us so many songs to sing to remember you by, yet somehow most of us are tone deaf,” he continued. “You left us a sense of humor, you left simplicity and modesty, you left a wide heart, a love of the land and optimism. You left behind stubbornness and toughness.”

“I see you in each of us kids, and in the sweet grandchildren,” Ron added. “Mom, you and Yigal were people of action. Your spirit is alive and kicking inside us. I want to believe that your soft and simple soul has found eternal rest.”

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