Berta Schwartz A”H, 71, of Philadelphia was the third victim of the deadly bus crash on Route 40 on Sunday night.

Berta and her husband Baruch were in Israel for the first time in nine years in anticipation of the birth of their fifth grandchild. They were on the ill-fated 947 Egged bus on Sunday night and Berta was killed. Her husband was sitting in the row behind her which saved his life.

“I screamed for more than a half-hour: ‘Where is she? Where is she?,'” Baruch told Ynet. “She was under the concrete. I remember that I went off the bus and I screamed: ‘Bring firefighters, my wife is under the concrete.'”

“What is the most painful is that we were expecting a grandchild in another two weeks and she was so looking forward to this,” Baruch added. “She hasn’t been in Israel for nine years and the visit was so significant for her.”

Baruch said that on Sunday they were traveling from Petach Tikvah, where they had rented an apartment, to the Kosel. “Because she said that she must go to the Kosel. She took a bunch of dollars with her and gave them out to everyone there and was so happy to be at the Kosel.”

[TWO BUS CRASH VICTIMS IDENTIFIED: R’ Yosef Kahlani Z”L, Mrs Haley Sevitz-Varenberg A”H]

Baruch added that on their way back to Petach Tikva, many opportunities arose for them to take a different route home but it seemed like there was a force pushing them on that 947 bus. When they got on the bus, Berta sat in the front row and told her husband to sit next to her but he preferred to sit in the row behind her, a decision that saved his life. He even asked his wife to join him but she decided to stay put in the first row.

As they approached Petach Tikva, Baruch began gathering his things. “Before we reached the stop, I heard something rolling in front of the bus – something that made a lot of noise. It sounded as if someone took a metal can and was rolling it quickly. I told this to the police. Then the shaking began and there was a terrifying noise. The bus shook back and forth and people screamed. I felt as if the bus was about to turn over to the right side and then the accident happened.”

Last Thursday, Berta and her husband Baruch celebrated their 41st anniversary and on the same day she insisted on writing a will in the presence of a lawyer. “When we came to Israel it was important to her to write a will and she even managed to meet with a lawyer and do it,” Baruch said. “Last Thursday we celebrated our 41st anniversary. She was a wonderful mother and grandmother. She taught Hebrew in a Jewish school. Her past students would always come hug her when they saw her and were so happy to see her.”

Berta, who was born in Israel, and her husband Baruch, had been living in Philadelphia since they left Israel in 1976. Berta left behind her grieving husband, a son and two daughters, and four grandchildren, with another grandchild due to be born to her son in two weeks.