Mimi, our beloved, pampered granddaughter, went missing today for half an hour. She slipped from her mother’s hand and wandered off into the streets. In an instant, our world turned upside down. All our beloved friends and relatives were on alert. We blocked the roads, looked for her in every tent, described her to everyone we met and had patience to listen to us. There, at the entrances, the exits. We asked vendors and strangers if they had seen her. The news about her disappearance spread like wildfire everywhere around us.
Finally, and after thirty unbearable minutes, we found Mimi. Some people brought her back to us. She was trembling, crying and blood was dropping from her nose. We rushed to her with desperation. We feared that the worst might have happened to her.
Dozens of hands were busy wiping her tears and blood. Everybody was kissing her hands and feet. Crying eyes stared at her.
The terrible half hour of her absence brought us deep grief as if it were years. The tears that dropped from our eyes have never been like that even in our darkest tragedies. We almost collapsed, something that did not even happen before when we were facing the shelling, siege, and the suffering we passed through.
Oh God, what power children hold over us.
What miseries a child’s loss could bring! Even if that loss was for half an hour only.
I am writing this now, as I have experienced how it feels to lose a child forever.
Hamed Ashour
05/05/2025
