Published in Fox News (Original article)
Sigal (right) and her son Ron as a child (left). (The Shemer Family)
Sigal Shemer headed to the cemetery in Lod, a city in central Israel, in late September to wash her son’s headstone and place flowers on his grave.
Ron, her eldest son, was murdered by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7, 2023, after the militant group launched an early morning attack on southern Israel, killing roughly 1,200 people and taking more than 250 as hostages, according to estimates from Israeli authorities.
Numbers compiled by Fox News indicate an estimated 101 hostages are still being held in Gaza, almost 365 days later, including seven Americans.
Sigal reflected on the death of her son and the enduring impact of Oct. 7, one year later, in an interview with Fox News Digital.
Trauma has reshaped her life and left an indelible mark on her family, but she’s found some solace and hope through the Jerusalem-based nonprofit OneFamily, which offers support and resources to victims of terror. Through community outreach, the organization has become a lifeline, helping her navigate the complexities of her sorrow while honoring her son’s memory, amid a background of ongoing violence and loss.
Ron had been attending the Nova music festival in Re’im when the carnage unfolded, running with his friends to a car to escape the sound of gunshots in the area and the horror that was beginning to take place.
Over 800 damaged cars from the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks are collected at a site on Nov. 5, 2023, in Tkuma, Israel. (Noam Galai/Getty Images)
But the 23-year-old didn’t want to leave without two of his close friends. He opted not to get into the car and instead went to look for Dan and Omar. Soon after he found them, the trio went inside a shelter not far from the festival.
“He told to a friend, ‘Don’t be afraid. I will attack if someone will come in. I will attack them, and I will take care of you.’ But the terrorists dropped three grenades into the shelter,” his mother told Fox News Digital.
Soldiers visit a bomb shelter where revelers were killed and kidnapped after escaping the Nova music festival during the Oct 7 Hamas deadly attack on April 7, 2024 in Re’im, Israel. (Amir Levy/Getty Images)
Dan was killed, Omar survived and Ron was taken outside, where he was heard fighting and struggling with Hamas militants. He wasn’t heard from for days and his family feared he had been taken hostage.
“One week after, there was a knock on the door, and they told us — the army and the police told us — that Ron is… is not… is not alive because they shot him in the head,” Sigal said.
She took a moment to remove her glasses and wipe away the tears from her eyes. The death of her son is still palpable and raw for the mother of two, who is survived by her husband Oren, and younger son Bari.
Sigal remembered Ron as a young man who loved people and animals, loved to travel and loved to help others.
Ron Shemer, 23, attended the Nova music festival in Re’im when the carnage of Oct. 7 unfolded. (The Shemer Family)
He was a counselor at a Jewish youth summer camp in Pennsylvania, where he taught children Muay Thai, a form of boxing and the national sport of Thailand.
Since his murder, the Shemer family has returned to the camp, meeting with those who knew Ron and visiting all of his favorite places in the United States.
Before Oct. 7, Ron was on a 10-month trip to South America and Sigal feared for his safety.
“All the time, I was afraid that something will happen to him because it’s, you know, in Brazil, the Amazonas, Colombia — places that — they’re not so safe. And I tell him, please come home, please come home. It’s not safe there. So, he came home and it’s not safe here. It’s not safe to be here,” she told Fox News Digital. “The terrorists, the monster… came inside the country and killed and murdered and raped and burned a lot of people, innocent people.”
“There is no life. I think there is no life. There is no life from the 7th of October,” she added.
Sigal was working as an event producer prior to the day that’s now known as “Black Saturday.” She’s since left her job, consumed by grief, and now works two days a week taking care of dogs, something her son loved to do.
“I want people to know that my son and all of the murdered boys and girls on the 7th of October are lost for the world,” she told Fox News Digital. “Many people in Israel lost their sons and daughters for nothing. Just for nothing.”
A Way Forward
OneFamily Fund has provided support to many families whose loved ones were murdered in the worst attack on the Jewish people since the Holocaust.
Naomi Nussbaum, OneFamily’s executive director, told Fox News Digital how they use different types of therapy to help families cope with the loss of a loved one.
“We offer three types of support: Emotional support, financial support and legal aid. We’ve given out much, much more financial aid now than before because of the kind of devastation, you know, the nature of the attack on October 7th,” she said.
“There’s traditional therapy with psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, trauma-informed therapists tackling PTSD throughout all the categories. Dealing with PTSD is the most insidious and difficult part of the terror attacks to deal with. Then, we have the social network, which is really the heart and soul of OneFamily.”
Sigal and her husband Oren meet with OneFamily coordinator, Nava (left). (The Shemer Family)
Sigal has met with other mothers whose children were murdered and said it’s not an easy thing to do, but it’s helpful to speak with someone who’s suffering from a similar situation and going through the same stages of grief.
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“We’re like professional friends for life. And the other people in the group that we put her with will be there also. You know, she can call anybody at any time to have dinner or to go for a walk or for a birthday or the anniversary of a death. They’ll be there for each other forever,” said Nussbaum.
“It takes a lot of courage and strength to smile again for the first time or to take a little bit of joy to say, let’s go out to dinner tonight. Sometimes, the guilt and the grief and bereavement is too strong, and people can’t do that. So, OneFamily, really with open arms and a lot of love, does everything they can to get them to want to come back to life again.”
People light candles beneath a wall showing posters identifying hostages abducted by Palestinian militants during the October 7 attack and currently held in the Gaza Strip, at a vigil demanding government action for their return outside the Israeli parliament (Knesset) in Jerualem on November 7, 2023. (AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP via Getty Images)
A State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital in Israel’s nearly 12-month-long war against Hamas, more than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed, including more than 6,200 women and 11,300 children.
The Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count.
A man walks past shelter tents erected near collapsed buildings in the Bureij camp for Palestinian refugees in the central Gaza Strip on October 1, 2024 amid the ongoing war in the Palestinian territory between Israel and Hamas. (EYAD BABA/AFP via Getty Images)
Nearly 2 million people are estimated to have been displaced in Gaza – about 90% of the population, according to the United Nations, and 495,000 people are facing catastrophic levels of food insecurity.
