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Childhood
14.12.1980 - Dan was born in Tel Hashomer Hospital
Dan Dan was born, weighing 3.850 kg, the second child of Ronit and Ran Hanegby- a brother of Ori who is two and a half years older than him. The nurse said, "You have an athlete baby." He was born muscular with wide shoulders, strong legs and a strong voice. We lived in Ramat Hasharon and when DanDan was crying full of his lungs, he was crying as loud as a chainsaw. And the whole neighborhood was familiar with that masculine crying and knew ... Dandan was hungry again.
Ferdinand the Bull
At the age of 8 months, Dan started walking and the race began. A sturdy baby does not miss any opportunity to climb, move, and checks everything that's called in his way. One of the things Dan liked most was flowers. Smelling, picking and watering them. We called him "Ferdinand the Bull" because he was muscular and liked to smell the flowers in the small garden at our house in 1 Bazel Street in Herzliya.
I'm a Dolphin
From a very young age, Dan was looking for what to do with the unique features he was privileged to receive. Every day he would stand on the fence at the entrance to the house and announce "I am a dolphin" or "I am a supermarket" (in other words I am Superman). That way he would stand for hours and announce to all the neighbors whom they were dealing with.
Clothes were not his faviorat
Dan hated to dress and at every opportunity used to undress. At home, in the garden, and shameless at all family events. Even as an adult he used to cut the collar of his shirts.
Legend has it that when Harvard University offered him to move in and lead their tennis team, he refused because "In Harvard, you wear ties"... So he chose to go to the Brown
Kindergarten is His Playground
Dan went to Kindergarten starting the age of two. Gan "Ahuva", Gan "Rivka", Sabrina and Rachel. At Sabrina's kindergarten, he would line up the kids and make them go through morning exercises. In the municipality kindergarten, at the first parents' meeting, a mother gets up asking: "Who is this child who goes to Judo at the age of 4 and arranges the queue on the swings?" That was Dandan: a leader is born.
Noga my loved
The late Noga Musaly was more than a caregiver. She raised Dan and he loved her dearly. When he returned from kindergarten she would wait for him with a hot plate of food and a hug. They would rave together, laugh and she would take care of him. When he grew up he started traveling, whenever he came back home, he used to run and hug her. "I missed you" he would tell her. No doubt. It was a special love of its kind.
I'm 4 years old and discovered the tennis racket
It all started when Dan took Ronit's bat that was almost his size. He started pounding on everything I saw. At the age of 5, He started to play tennis in Kfar Shmaryahu. Dan's first tennis coach Larry asked, "Do you want to pay me any every time or percentage of his income in the future?" At Kfar Shmaryahu met Liron Strauss and from there they made a long way in tennis in friendship and love.
The Unbelievable Story: Dan and the Chocolate at the Egyptian Embassy
In 1986, the Egyptian ambassador, Muhammad Basioni, moved to live at Hanasi st. in Herzliya Pituach. At the entrance to his house, a guard post was set up as usual, and every time we passed by with the vehicle, Dan was very interested in what they were doing and how they were guarding the ambassador.
That year, Dandan used to spend time with his good friend Itai Shlush. In those days we lived on Basel Street, and every week Dandan would go to play with Itai, Dalia Mazor's son.
Ronit says: "That day I dropped Dan off at the door of Itai's house. He asked to take chocolate. Because it was unusual, I asked him why suddenly chocolate?" Dan answered without any hesitation: "Because Itai really likes chocolate and I want to bring him".
Ronit keeps telling: "I was happy and gave him a fancy chocolate bar. I saw him pass the garden gate and knock on the door of the house, and I drove off. About forty minutes later, a police car shows up at our house. In the car it saw Dandan, basting with a smile from ear to ear."
The policeman stopped the car "Sorry ma'am. Is this your child?"
I'm in utter shock. "Yes, I answer"
"You are a very irresponsible mother." I snatched Pick on my knees
"Let you know that he came to the Egyptian embassy, alone, and told them he had brought them chocolate"...
The policemen at the embassy called the police, and Dan was put in the car, and without knowing the address, he directed the policemen directly to our house.
I apologized to the cops and thanked them, and they kept explaining to me that I was an irresponsible mother
After I calmed down, I asked Dandan how comes he went to the embassy. And Dan, with a poker face, replied "I pretended to go to Itai, I wanted to visit the cops guarding the ambassador because it's important that they would have fun"
And the chocolate - it indeed stays with the cops.
Hello 1st grade
Brandeis School, Nordau Street Herzliya on the hill. Ori is already there. Dan arrives and immediately starts to sort things out. Already he knew how to read I excel in Math.
He worked hard and used to train 4 times a week on the tennis court in Ramat Hasharon. After school, he rushed home, eat, get organized and go out to practice tennis. Comes home in the evening and sits down to do homework. And so on.
How I Became a Harry Potter
At age 6, Dandan received his first "professional" bicycle. Already skilled in riding, we lived in a quiet neighborhood. The day he got his bikes - was exactly a week after he started practicing tennis in Ramat Hasharon. Before he went for a ride in the neighborhood, his mother Ronit told him: "I do not care where you ride, but please don't ride your bikes on the pedestrian bridge."
In less than 30 minutes, a loud knock is heard at the door, and a man from the neighborhood carries Dan in his hands, all covered in blood, and told me that Dan crashed with a bicycle on the bridge. On the way to a hospital in Kfar Saba with a broken hand and an open forehead, he sat in a car with towels on his forehead and did not utter a word. At the hospital, there was a nurses' strike, and Ronit had to help the doctor who stitched his forehead. We left the hospital, and after everything calmed down, I asked him "Dandan, I asked you deliberately not to ride on the bridge " Dandan replied without hesitation "You told me not to ride my bike - so I took a friend's bike". It was Dan. Brave and sophisticated.
The scar on his forehead left no doubt - and after many years sometimes his friends called Harry Potter ... and he, he hated it.
Hello Brandeis
Dan eagerly awaited to move from primary school to junior high in Ramat Hasharon. He knew exactly what he wanted, to be close to the tennis center, to be with kids who played sports at a professional level. His amazing educator Aggie Sandman writes
"I was also lucky enough to be a part of Dan's adolescence journey for a few years.
I educated him in grades 4-6 at "Brandis" School in Herzliya. I met an energetic, stubborn boy who knows what he wants and especially what he does not want.
His blue eyes knew how to laugh even when he was not smiling, and there was playfulness and defiance and humor ... lots of humor! He chose his goals carefully, focused on what was important, and believed that as someone who was gifted, much was expected of him. Although he was interested in many areas he went after his extraordinary talent in tennis.
Many times beautiful things are being said when someone dies as if they are raised above the human. I remember that you were human, I remember that you were nervous, that you broke down and cried that you succeeded and showed off. But I also remember the light, your beauty and your powers, your crazy pace on the side of being able to stop for a moment to contain, see and listen to the other. I remember the breaking points that brought with them great anger and frustration but no less the willpower to struggle until you succeed!
Maybe when you leave the physical world - what is left in life is what the soul has brought into the world, and with you, it is the light, the good, and the smile that you have brought.
Thank you for being"
Agi Sandman, Dan's teacher 1992-1994
(July 2022)
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