In the shadow of staggering loss, one new mom in Israel found herself with an early Christmas miracle — and late Hanukkah gift — this week.
Jinky Aguilon Bolivar, a Catholic, gave birth 66 days after losing “the love of my life,” Israeli photographer Gilad Kfir, who was killed during the Hamas massacre on Oct. 7.
The 7.7-pound baby girl was due to be born on Christmas day but came early on Wednesday, the sixth day of Hanukkah, which Kfir would have celebrated.
“Half of me died when they took my Gilad without seeing our unborn daughter,” Bolivar, 38, a native of The Philippines, told The Post. “He’s not with me during all of these special moments – he should be here.”
Hours after delivering the little black-haired beauty at Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv, Bolivar took to Facebook and spoke on behalf of their “princess” to her lost love.
“Felt your presence daddy, you didn’t let me feel alone and suffer pain a lot,” she posted. “Like you told me you want a mini-me and it happens. Love you and miss you so much.”
The couple previously decided on the name Zoe, meaning “life” in Greek.
“She is the daughter he dreamed of and we were building a simple family,” she said.
Bolivar gave birth exactly two months after Kfir’s funeral.
Kfir was killed shortly after 8 am, minutes after taking his final photos of terrorists paragliding into Israel and Hamas missiles being intercepted in mid-air, said his father, Meir Kfir, piecing together time stamps from the photos and security camera footage.
He was shot on the street by the entrance gate to a neighbor’s house, and crawled to the front door, where he was shot again by terrorists.
The killers then moved on, sparing the family who lived inside.
Kfir was carrying a gun at the time, and the terrorists likely thought Kfir was the owner of the home, whom they believed was an armed IDF officer, asserted Kfir’s dad.
Israel War Update
Get the most important developments in the region, globally and locally.
The neighbor “feels that his life and the lives of his family were saved,” said Meir. “And he attributes this to Gilad’s sacrifice to save them.”
Kfir’s family has now forged a “brotherhood” with this family, he added.
The family also saw what it believed was a sign that Kfir struggled to stay alive and was “not ready yet to die.”
“They told us they saw Gilad’s handprint trying to get up,” recalled Bolivar, who was supposed to be with Kfir on Oct. 7 but at the last minute, stayed in the north, a fateful decision that possibly saved the lives of both mom and daughter. Twenty residents of Nativ HaAsarah near Gaza border were reportedly killed.
At a memorial last month in New York City, where the 48-year-old photographer lived for many years, friends noted his desire for a “family of his own” and remembered him as a “loyal, kind and exceptionally humble” artist.
He yearned so much for a family, that he asked Bolivar on their very first date if she wanted kids.
“It was love at first sight,” she said. “The first day we meet I feel that he is the man for me and likewise I’m the one for him – it was his dream to be a daddy.”
That dream almost didn’t happen. After Kfir’s death, doctors determined that Bolivar’s pregnancy was high-risk because of the “stress” and “emotion” of the tragedy.
“I wasn’t high risk until the attack,” she said. “I cry before I sleep and wake up in the morning.”
Bolivar finds comfort in visiting Kfir’s gravesite, and said she “talk[s] to Gilad every day.”
The professional caregiver is determined to raise Zoe in Kfir’s homeland.
“I didn’t don’t worry about safety and terrorism because I know that war in Israel is just normal,” she said, confident the “holy land will always be safe and God will never let Israel be ruined.”