A Love That Doesn’t End: Inside OneFamily’s Healing Retreat for Widows and Mothers-in-Law

By Naomi Nussbaum

This week, OneFamily, a non-profit serving the survivors of terror in Israel, hosted a retreat unlike any other—quietly revolutionary, profoundly intimate, and rooted in the deepest places of human connection.

It was a day designed not just for grieving—but for healing.

The participants:

Widows and bereaved mothers-in-law, linked forever by the man they both loved.

A son. A husband. A soldier who never came home.

These women have lost the same person—but from entirely different angles. One carried him. One built a life with him. And after the funeral, most people don’t know what to do with that kind of complexity.

But we do.

So we brought them together—for one day of rest, renewal, and truth.

The retreat took place in nature and featured a full program of therapeutic workshops: ceramics, kayaking, guided photography, and heart-centered communication sessions. Two nourishing meals were served throughout the day, and OneFamily’s expert therapists were present throughout—offering support, guidance, and the kind of sensitive facilitation that allowed each woman to open up at her own pace.

Each participant was invited to take three photographs of her counterpart:

One that captured her strength.

One that revealed her softness.

One that reflected who she is—through the lens of shared grief.

Tami David, mother of the late Major Omri David z”l, held up one of her photographs: an image of her daughter-in-law Noam represented by a treasure box.

“She’s the treasure,” she said. “The part of Omri that lives in her—that’s my treasure.”

That was the kind of sacred truth that filled the day.

Every smile, every tear, every held gaze said the same thing:

We are not alone. And our love for him is still alive—in each other.

This retreat offered not only expression, but restoration.

Michal Weiner, mother of the late Yehav Weiner z”l—who fell in Kfar Aza leaving behind a young wife and a one-month-old baby—put it best:

“These gatherings lift me up. Many times, I come after a hard day and tell myself—this group is exactly where I need to be, because it’s the only place where people truly understand me. Others, even good friends or supportive family, don’t really get it. Only here, among peers, I feel embraced and understood—more than anywhere else.”

There were no lectures. No formal speeches. Just shared silence, warm food, handmade mugs, meaningful photographs, and women giving each other permission to cry, to laugh, and to speak about their sons and husbands in the present tense.

Because grief doesn’t end.

But neither does love.

The group fell quiet many times throughout the day—but not because they lacked words.

Because the pain was so present, so mutual, so deep… that words simply weren’t necessary.

OneFamily believes healing happens in relationships—when we dare to show up for one another in the hardest moments.

And this retreat was exactly that.

A day for connection.

A day for courage.

A day for two women to hold onto one man’s memory—together.

Naomi Nussbaum is executive director of OneFamily, based in Teaneck, New Jersey, Israel’s leading non-profit serving the survivors of terror.