Dafna Meir's Funeral

Some 1,500 people came to the Givat Shaul cemetery on Monday morning to pay respects to Dafna Meir who was murdered by a terrorist in her home in Otniel on Sunday.

Meir, 38, was a wife to Natan and a mother of six:

 Renana, 17, Akiva, 15, Ahava, 10, Noa, 11, Yair, six, and Yaniv, four. Dafna gave birth to the four older children and she and Natan adopted the two younger ones who are brothers.

Dafna’s eldest daughter Renana, 17 said “I didn’t just lose a mother, but also my best friend,” at her mother’s funeral. “It’s hard for me to think we will not laugh together or fight anymore, that you won’t accompany me to the IDF induction center, down the aisle, and to the maternity ward,” Renana continued.

“I’m sorry that in your hardest moments I was unable to help you.”

Renana witnessed her mother’s murder and called for help, screaming into the phone “My mother was stabbed, my mother was stabbed. Help me!” Dafna fought off the terrorist to try to keep them from hurting her children. Renana’s screams helped scare him off as well.

“You left me with six treasures, I will keep them safe for you,” husband Natan said in a voice choked with tears.

“My Dafna is one in a million, who grew up in a house that wasn’t a home and still managed to rehabilitate. She decided to give back grace to the world, and she did,” Natan said of his wife, who grew up in foster homes until the age of 13.

“We met when we were soldiers, at the south Lebanon border. It only took us a moment to fall in love. My Dafna, thank you for every moment I had with you,” he continued. “Our love is too strong to be a passing thing.”