Danna Hayon says that when she told her mother she was divorcing, she also declared that within two years she would build a new family. At the time, that seemed unlikely, she says, because she was a newly divorced mother of twins, then one year old, after several kidney-related hospitalizations and amid severe financial distress. Still, she believed it would happen, and exactly two years later she met Haim, who had been divorced for only three months.
The couple, both from Rishon LeZion, now describe themselves as a “couple on steroids.” Haim, 47, and Danna, 41, run a center for personal, business and relationship development. They each came into the relationship with children and serious challenges: one child on the nonverbal autism spectrum and another struggling with mental illness. They say the relationship became immediate and all-in from the start, with a shared understanding that second marriages are complicated but worth fighting for.
Danna said she was first married at 22, had twins, and gradually realized that she and her first husband had fundamentally different outlooks on life. After the divorce, when the twins were 15 months old, she decided to look for a balanced, healthy partnership and began using dating sites and singles events. Haim replied to her profile, and she said something in his message made her heart skip. They met the same day, talked until 4 a.m. at a restaurant, and he asked her the next morning if she would come to his place. Haim said he knew by their second date that she would be his wife.
Their families blended gradually. The children met after four months, and three months later the couple moved in together. They married two years after meeting, but the early years were difficult. Haim was adjusting to a new career path and periods with no income while supporting two households, and Danna spent long stretches in hospital. Haim also dealt with guilt toward his children and with his own family’s difficulty accepting the divorce. Danna later gave birth to a son, Omer, against medical odds after kidney warnings and complicated genetic testing. Omer was born at 34 weeks on their wedding day and was diagnosed with autism at age one, while Danna’s older son Yuvall later suffered repeated psychotic episodes and hospitalizations.
Despite everything, they say their marriage has lasted 11 years because they protect time together, outsource household logistics, schedule family time, take regular getaways and keep working on themselves. “If Haim and I had not done deep developmental work as a way of life, we would not have lasted together,” Danna said. Haim summed up their approach by saying they are partners and friends first, and that they accept crises as part of life rather than expecting only “the cherries.”
