‘I’m the proud mother of Ran Gvili’: Talik Gvili parts from her son

Talik Gvili, mother of Ran Gvili, sighs as she begins to eulogize her son.

“Wow, I’m the proud mother of Ran Gvili, the last to return.”

She thanks all the government leaders present, as well as members of the Hostages and Missing Families Forum and the hawkish Tikvah Forum, as well as her family, including her own parents, and the residents of Meitar.

Gvili says she imagines her son in heaven, with a tribunal of all the slain heroes She imagines him with a glass of arak, telling the others to come and listen to his eulogies. “It’ll be cool,” she imagines her son saying.

Gvili recalls seeing a rainbow while driving with her husband to the first meeting for the families of the hostages in October 2023.

She says they drove into the rainbow and she felt it was a sign from her son.

“My beloved boy, the hope that you would return on two legs or even one gave us the strength to go through this without you,” says Gvili.

“I imagined you looking at me, and telling me, ‘Don’t cry, you’re proud, you’re proud,'” says Gvili. “Every time I’m tearful, I feel you looking at me, ‘My proud mother.'”

She tells the crowd about how her son, a police officer, once returned from handling a protest and told her that the protesters spat on him.

“‘What, they don’t understand that we’re on the same side?'” Ran asked of his mother.

“I felt that was my goal to show everyone that we’re one nation, that we’re all on the same side,” says Talik Gvili. “I promise you that because of you, we all remembered that despite the disagreements, we’re one nation.”

“700 soldiers looked for you and found you, 700 soldiers found you and brought you back,” says Gvili.

She speaks to Israel’s enemies.

“You, our enemies, tried to scare us. Look what’s left of you and you’ll see what will be left of you,” says Gvili.

“Rani and the other heroes give us the strength,” says Gvili. “You’re so with me, Rani, I’m Talik Gvili, a proud, proud mother.”