American immigrant David Martin Lelchook's last conversation with his wife Esti took place only 15 minutes before he was killed by shrapnel from the missile that landed in his front yard on Wednesday afternoon, August 2, 2006. He told her that he had to stay in their small Kibbutz Sa'ar home to care for the crops and for their three dogs and three cats, even though she and many of his neighbors had sought refugee in safer parts of the country. Esti heard on the news that a man on a bicycle had been killed at Sa'ar, near Nahariya. She believed it was him, based both on the pictures of the destroyed home and because her husband had loved to cycle. Kibbutz secretary Yair Bauml said that it was in Lelchook's nature to have remained behind to care for the animals and the land. Esti had left more than two weeks earlier to stay with their 25-year-old daughter in the center of the country. Their younger daughter, 23, was in the US when her father was killed. Lelchook used to distribute food to people stuck in communal shelters in Nahariya. Rabbi Yisrael Butman of Chabad said that Lelchook was a regular contributor to its soup kitchen. Esti said that ever since her husband was a young boy growing up in Newton, Massachusetts, he had dreamed of living in Israel. He visited several times as a volunteer before he immigrated in 1980, she said. They met while he was working with children in an outlying area during his first years in the country. At first they lived in Nahariya, but they moved to Sa'ar 16 years before he was killed so that they could raise their children in a more pastoral setting and fulfill his dream of working the land. He had served in the army and performed reserve duty.
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