House Divided

I still have not found out much about what transpired after we left the last time and all that has happened since but even to mention going to Salem’s house leads to a heated discussion. A few days after our arrival I decided to take Fatimah and go out the gate to the little family market and get an ice cream. As we approached the gate a man walked in and Taher was there to greet him. I saw immediately it was his brother Salem. I hugged him hard and asked where Aieysha was. He informed me that she was at the house and I dropped the idea of going for ice-cream and headed immediately to his house. They were worried I would not find my way I told him I looked at that path a thousand times over the past 6 years I would not forget where he lived.

The path had changed but the things you look for along you way had not walk till you find the road that goes to the school, past the school, the house will be on the left past the women’s mosque. The two houses that were once in front of him now were gone and new ones were being built in their places. This was one of the homes Taher had lived in as a baby and it was gone. Tajura seemed to have a building boom and new houses were everywhere and many new shops have sprung up along the way. 

I came up to the gate and tapped on the door it was open and I slowly walked in speaking so as not to startle anyone as we approached. By the time I had reached the enter door the kids had alerted the women that someone was at their door.  The girls were happy to see us and it took a few minutes to recognize each of the girls. Six years and war had put a few signs of stress on each of them.  After a few minutes they brought Aieysha into the room and sat her near me. Her eyes were weak and she had to be told who we were.

Cancer you are a witch of a woman.  How can you destroy all you touch? How do you suck the life out of infants and children? How do you understand the lives you leave in ruin for every finger that you touch a human life with? I’m sure everyone has seen what cancer can do to a loved one. Strip them of their hair, their beauty, their health and in most cases all that is precious to them. She had now lost the upper pallet of her mouth and I looked into her face and saw only the twinkle of her eyes clouded that they were with Glaucoma the woman I had remembered all these years.

We spend millions on weapons but a human life we seem to not value. We find better ways to kill more people with less but to save a life we seem to hold tight to the money and skills and technology that could save many from misery.

She spoke to me and I knew deep inside that weak body she was there lost in the cloud of pain and medications that did little to ease her suffering. Shortly after, the boys came in and I met Alah her oldest son who we had not met before but had chatted with on the phone over the past year. Now except for the youngest daughter all had married and there was a gaggle of children running around and cuddled in arms to sort into who was whose child.  She asked for Taher and I told her he was at the house with Salem and Inshallah soon would visit.  Another time, that my words would not become truth and we would lose her before he saw her again.  Two short weeks later she was in a return trip from Tunisia for more treatment since it was the only place they could take her since we had yet to get permission to take her to the USA she died on the way back.  They had pulled into a local hospital and there she was pronounced dead but due to the heat they would not release her body until a refrigerated vehicle could be brought.

I remember that morning. I had opened the door to the room that we keep the baby kitten in and I noticed that she moved slowly creeping towards some unseen prey. As she moved across the room I began to follow her and she went out onto the balcony that is outside that room.  I looked around the corner and saw a dove sitting seemingly stunned on the floor.  I watched as she slowly approached the bird. I then saw it was a fledgling and went to keep her from doing any harm to the baby bird. I tried to take it some water but the bird just seemed so tired and kept distance from us if we approached.  Shortly after, it was startled by the cat and flew off the balcony into the wall of the family attached to our common walls and then it bounced into the courtyard of their home, unseen after it fell. 

You see in old superstitions for a bird to enter your home is a sign of pending death. But all that I felt at that moment was sadness that she had fallen and I was unable to reach her to help her.

About two hours later we had a knock on the door and Abra my niece told Taher something but the words “morta” and Aieysha I understood.  Since my mother in laws name is Aieysha I thought something had happened to momma during the night.  He told me no its Salem’s wife. I was told that I was to dress and go with my mother in law and my sister in law to her house soon as we could. 

I met each of the girls and cried rivers of tears all those “I’m going to go over and see her as soon as she is back,” promises gone out the window. And sadly Taher had never made it over to see her.  For three days the standard for mourning we greeted women coming in and out to pay respect for the family. The girls grieved and we had a few problems with them refusing to eat or even drink and I scolded them saying they were all mothers if they refused to eat and got sick would their children not only lose their grandmother but their mother as well and what about their father did he not have enough grief? One of the girls I seemed to feel she was someone I knew but oddly I thought her to be a daughter in law but she was later I realized the second to the youngest and was pregnant with her first babies.  The youngest was the most grief stricken as with all young ladies to think that your mother will not be around for not only your wedding but the birth of your first babies I felt hit her most profoundly.  I told her I could not take the place of her mother but she was like my sister and if ever the girls needed me I was only a phone call away.

In the end whatever had been said or not said it was too late to ask and even Salem I greeted and told if he needed anything I was only a call away.  We saw each other again on Eid as he was oldest so we visited his house along with the last Uncle of Taher left and his oldest sister Shareefa who had lost her husband the year before during the Revolution.  The girls had moved past their grief and as always life moves on.