The power of love – and two strong women
Published in The Australian Jewish News
October 12, 2017
Nyanjock Maluel Kuel possesses a graceful calm as she meanders between her five children. Tall and elegant, she is reminiscent of an African queen as she pauses in the centre of her living room. Adorned with the bright cotton of her traditional Sudanese dress, white and green punctuates against her rich skin. “Come in!”, she beckons with a wide grin, in the midst of her children who continue to weave around her.
It is an exciting day, years in anticipation. She gathers the children, and they make their way out the front door of their home in Melbourne’s West, halting where the driveway meets the road. She is flanked by her youngest daughter and her grandson, Abram. The children each clutch a bunch of flowers wrapped in bright plastic. In silence, they watch for a car to turn into their street. It has been almost five years since they last met with Sharon Bloch – the Israeli woman who saved Abram. And now they wait.
Nyanjock and Sharon entered each other’s lives in 2012, two women who had every reason not to connect, and yet the one commonality that could have divided them, united them. The love for Abram.