PETALS & THORNS by by Esther Klein - 2019: One Woman's Experiences with ALS

One Woman's Experiences with ALS

I entered a taxi one day, on my way to an urgent meeting.
Please Hashem, I davened, let the meeting go well. Let me not fall or choke. Hashem, You are the Ultimate Goodness. I'm scared. Hold my hand please and let these incidents pass.

The taxi drew to a halt, I paid the driver, and...

I can't get out!!! What's this? Help me! What is wrong with me? My feet don't move. It's as if a mammoth pump has sucked the energy out of my legs so chat they are left lying, completely lifeless, on the taxi seat.

Hashem, what is going on with me? What is going to happen to me next?

Geveret! The driver is losing his patience.


I flush, my redness stemming from embarrassment, and even more so from fear and dread.


Geveret!!!

Driver, I cannot get out...
Thus begins the spine-tingling story of the active and vibrant Mrs. Esther Klein, educational supervisor of the Bais Yaakov preschools in Jerusalem, and an esteemed lecturer and pedagogic center director.

When Mrs. Klein fell ill with an incurable, neurodegenerative disease, even the walls closing in on the best years of her life couldn't stop her from spreading her wings heavenwards with emunah and simchah.


With simple and couching words, Mrs. Klein writes her story. Along­side her moving and couching experiences, all the chapters of this book include spiritual and educational insights. For in the author's opinion, there is no point being couched and moved, if those emotions don't lead to action.