Katarina Kastaniada

Soft music and high female voices filled the arches of the Catholic Cathedral of St. Peter in Jaffa. Many flowers, wreaths. A small coffin covered with Israeli and Colombian flags, the front rows of the church filled with weeping children, some with fresh bandages — evidently having come to Jaffa straight from the hospital.

This is how they bid farewell to fifteen-year-old Catherine. For the last five years, she had come here almost every week. Two years ago, an excited girl in a white dress received her first communion here, and the priest sent her off with the words: «Now you are grown up…» Catherine will never grow older…

The Castignada family has lived in Israel for six years. They came here from Colombia. The family is small: mother, stepfather, Catherine, and her younger brother. At school, the girl befriended the «Russians» — they are closer in spirit, and they share similar problems, olim ones.

Recently, Catherine returned from the States, where she had been visiting her father, and decided to celebrate her return with her best friend. On that fateful Friday, entry to «Dolphi» was free for girls…

The school principal said at Catherine's coffin: «Your green-eyed face will belong to the angel who will become the guardian angel for the rest of our children».

At the Catholic cemetery in Jaffa, a niche in the concrete wall was prepared for Catherine, but her grieving mother insisted that her daughter be buried in the ground, «in the holy land of Israel».

A marble cross above the grave mound, a sea of flowers, and a modest plaque: «Catherine Castignada-Talker 1986–2001. And all we have left is memory».

Sergey Grankin. Special Issue of «Vesti»