The Squares Challenge this month is Past Squares. For more about it, see host Becky's blog, Life of B. She has amazing galleries.

Today, self decided to go back to a fraught trip she took to Tel Aviv in 2008, to visit her sister-in-law, Ying, who was in Ichilov Hospital, diagnosed with Stage IV leukemia. Her brother had the use of an apartment on Ruppin Street and was there with his 9-year-old son.

Self was fascinated and enthralled by Tel Aviv, by its beaches, by its strolling couples (she saw a lot of Filipinas strolling hand in hand with older men), by its robust young life. She'd never known such big, healthy-looking people before. They looked really Mediterranean. And they were kind, too: patient in giving her directions, and usually even taking her by the hand and leading her directly to where she wanted to go.

One day, she took a day-trip to Jerusalem. She snapped the picture of the young soldiers at the Wailing Wall. Then she dropped by a bazaar, where she took the picture of the running children.

Later that year, Ying died. It was terrible; self had already returned to California. It was her brother who called and told her. Damn, why do the best die young. Ying's son went on to study film at NYU. Her daughter, who wasn't even a year old when Ying passed, is a beautiful, graceful girl who reminds self so much of her mother.