I love sharing experiences like the one that I had today. Bedrooms in Israel don’t have built in closets the way that most do in the States. Instead, we purchase standing closets. We’ve purchased all of our children’s beds and closets from one store in Talpiot and have been very happy with the quality and service overall.

About six months ago, however, while Matan was getting something from his closet, the door literally ripped off! I was standing there so I can attest to the fact that Matan didn’t try to imitate the Incredible Hulk…he simply opened it in a normal fashion. I was quite annoyed with the workmanship from the company, and I called them to see if they could send a worker to fix the closet (or to see if there was a larger issue). “Sure, sure” they said….

And then, of course…nothing happened.

I called again,

and again,

and again.

Finally, I gave up. I figured that we would, eventually, be purchasing more kids’ furniture, and I would call and give them one last chance to fix the closet before we took our business elsewhere.

Just this morning, coincidentally, I thought about them again and thought that I should call. And then I sighed, and decided I just didn’t have the strength for it today.

So, while driving through the Yishuv to get my haircut, I was stopped in my tracks by the big truck sitting at my friend’s house. Shoshi had a baby three weeks after I did, and she had clearly just purchased something from Modeel (the store).

I was so excited, I almost drove off the road! Grabbing my phone, I called the store and asked to speak with the owner (as I have every time).

“Your truck is in the Yishuv!” I declared. “And it’s not leaving until those workers come to my house!”

As he has before, the owner grilled me about how long we’ve had the furniture and insinuated that we must have pulled too hard or done something else wrong. As I have before, I explained that we did nothing wrong and that those workers better make a house call today! He took down my information and said he’d be in touch.

Yeah, right.

So, I sat with my phone in my lap during my haircut, in anticipation of their call. When I finished my haircut, and still hadn’t heard from them, I made a decision. I drove right over to Shoshi’s house and explained the situation to her. Together, she and I marched down to the workers and she (with her much better Hebrew) started to explain my situation. Before finishing her sentence, the worker said, “Sussman? Right? Yeah, she’s on my list to go to next.”

Yahooo! I couldn’t believe I had actually managed to get them to come over. I left Shoshi’s house patting myself on the back, but still skeptical that they would actually come. But, low and behold, an hour later he was at my door.

Of course, the work that needed to be done only took 5 minutes.

5 minutes of work that was accomplished only after 6 months of badgering….

but a story of success through perseverance and creativity in the end!