Nadejda Spravchikov, 75: Trained chemist devotedly cared for elderly

Nadejda Spravchikov, 75, from Netivot, was murdered by Hamas terrorists in Sderot on October 7.

Nadejda and her sister, Natalia Tomayev, were part of a tour bus of mostly retired Israelis who were heading for a day trip to the Dead Sea early that morning. The bus got a flat tire near Sderot, and pulled into a bus stop in the city in order for the driver to fix it.

While they were waiting outside the bus stop, air raid sirens warning of a rocket attack rang out. The bus stop had a bomb shelter with an automated door, that was supposed to unlock when sirens sounded, but it malfunctioned and the door remained locked. Moments later, a pickup truck of Hamas terrorists drove by and opened fire on the group of senior citizens, murdering all 13 of them, including both Nadejda and Natalia; only the driver survived.

Images of the bus stop slaughter were among the first to circulate early that morning, shocking Israelis in their brutality and horrifying the family members of those who identified their loved ones in the photos. Nadejda’s daughter, Irit, told an independent news outlet that when she saw the photos, “I recognized immediately that it was Mom and her sister, from the clothes and their body shape.”

The family was nevertheless forced to wait nine days before they received official word that her body had been identified and she could be buried.

Born in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, in 1948, when it was part of the Soviet Union, Nadejda was the oldest among her siblings: Natalia, Vladimir and Leonid. She completed her schooling in the city and was active in a communist youth group, according to a state eulogy. After high school she attended university in the city, earning a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in chemistry.

During her university studies, she met and married Anatoly, and they eventually had three children, Igor, Alexander and Irit. Nadejda worked in her field and in her spare time loved to pursue artistic endeavors, particularly with fabric and clothing, including macrame, knitting, embroidery and sewing.

In 1993, the couple’s three kids moved to Israel as part of a student program, and the parents followed not long after. They settled first in Kibbutz Geva before moving to Holon and then Netivot. Nadejda and Anatoly later divorced but remained on friendly terms, and Nadejda and her sister cared for many years for their mother until she died less than a year before they were slain. She also enjoyed spending time with her grandchildren.

Her daughter, Irit, told At Magazine that the sisters “particularly loved visiting the Dead Sea, they loved to paddle around in the water. In November they planned to go on a trip to Eilat and after that to the Upper Galilee, they’d already paid for the trips.”

After moving to Israel, Irit said, her mother switched careers and worked caring for the elderly: “When she made aliya, she decided that her calling was to help the elderly, even though she was old herself, she insisted on giving of herself to others and supporting those who needed it,” she told the Mako news site.

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