Helena Ivan

Jun 18, 2002 - Helena Ivan, 63, of Jerusalem, was one of 19 people killed in a suicide bombing at the Patt junction in Egged bus no. 32A traveling from Gilo to the center of Jerusalem.

The terrorist boarded the bus at 7:50 A.M. at the stop in Beit Safafa, an Arab neighborhood opposite Gilo, and almost immediately detonated the large bomb which he carried in a bag stuffed with ball bearings. The blast destroyed the front half of the bus, packed with people on their way to work and schoolchildren. Of the 19 victims, 17 were residents of the Gilo neighborhood; 74 people were injured.

Helena Ivan lived with pediatrician Dr. Irina Minei and her son Yon in Gilo. Yon Minei said Helena was a lonely woman who had no relatives. She began to work for the family about 35 years ago when she cared for Yon and his sister back in Romania. Yon relates how Helena rescued him from an earthquake in Bucharest when he was eight.

Helena came to Israel with the Minei family 20 years ago. Yon's father, Dr. Nicolai Minei, died three years ago. "She tied her fate to ours," said Yon. "She was like a second mother to me." She cleaned houses in several places and left for work each morning from their home, after walking the family's three dogs.