Sleeping Beauty

In the small city of Tripoli, in this middle-eastern country of Lebanon, there lived Jamilah her husband Bilal and their three young children. It was the year 1975 and everything was promising in her life. She had gotten married five years ago to a wonderful man who, since day one, had been so loving and caring. He always made her feel so special and that she was the most important person in his life. In turn, she took extra care with the way she dressed up and always wore her make up because she wanted to look beautiful for this special man who has given nothing but happiness. Even the birth of their first, second and third child did not deter him away from her. In fact, having children together only brought them closer and proved him to be a loving father as well as a caring husband.

Jamilah thought that nothing could take away this happiness from her. This peaceful life was forever going to be engulfing them. Bilal will always be on her side caring and loving until death do them apart.

The Wicked Witch

The coming summer of 1975 only proved Jamilah to be very mistaken. She had put so much trust in this horrible world and so much hope for a never-ending happiness in their lives. For reasons that were unclear to anyone the Lebanese civil war broke out. It was Lebanese citizens killing each other not knowing really why. Was it a war for the mere difference in religion, where Christians and Muslims were shooting one another? But it could not have been!!! There were people of the same religion or region killing each other…. Whatever, it was Bilal wanted nothing to do with it. He kept to himself and to his young family and always said to Jamilah “It is an ugly war, we are destroying our country with our own hands and I want nothing to do with it”.

The Curse

Despite Bilal's decision to stay away from this war the war decided to come too close to him and made him have a role in it. However, his role was not be a perpetrator but a victim. He became one of the hundreds of innocent civilians who just happened to be turning the wrong corner at the wrong time. A stray bullet struck Billal in the middle of his forehead and immediately transferred him from the world of the living to the world of the dead.

Going Into a Deep Sleep

Jamilah all at once found herself alone without Bilal. The man that had filled her life with joy had gone. The man that had worked so hard for her and their children was no longer there to come in through the door at the end of hard working day, carrying bags of fruits and presents for her and the children. Her backbone had been snatched away from her with no warning. As such her life was also transformed, from extreme happiness to extreme sorrow, sadness and distress. Just like that she found herself without her caring and loving husband, having to take care of three children in a country that had nothing to offer except war and insecurity. There was no social security system in Lebanon to assist her in raising up her children. Her parents could barely support themselves in this war torn country and she could not burden them even further. So what was she to do? How was she going to support herself and her children? She had never worked in her life and she had not been trained for anything. It was the norm in Lebanon that the father provides for the family while the mother took care of it. But now she had to be both father and mother. Was she going to let her children suffer, live in poverty, not go to school and start child labour like other orphan children did under the circumstances?

No way in the world was she going to allow her children to live this kind of life. No death and no war was going to stop her from allowing them to have good food, clothing and most importantly good education.

So Jamilah started to think what did widowed mothers do to cater for their children. Some had rich families to support them and their children. Some remarried and gave up their children to their father's family to worry about them. Very rarely a man would take on a widow along with her children. Not because they were all so mean and careless, but living in a country that was at war a man could barely support himself and his own family.

Jamilah thought that there was only one option left for her to take. She would find whatever work she could and support her children and give them the best life she could. She would only ask her parents for moral support and her mother, for sure, would not mind babysitting her children while she worked.