Hey friends, Hadi and Mohamad here. This post is dedicated to our parents, Ahmad and Fatima: two retired teachers of 40 and 35 years, and a resilient loving couple, who despite living through five wars — from the Lebanese civil war (1975–1990) to the Israeli wars and invasions (1978, 1982, 1996, 2006, and 2024, current) — carry with them endless kindness, wit, laughter, and love for life.
While preparing for a show last year, we wanted to better understand resilience: What makes people carry on despite ongoing injustice? How do they keep the light shining inside them? So, we asked our parents about their forced displacement by Israel.
“In 1985,” they said, “we drove to Beirut as we usually did every Christmas. A few days later, we got the call: we were blacklisted and would be arrested if we returned unless we cooperated with the LaHed army (local traitors with Israel). Our home was looted; everything was broken and stolen. The car, furniture, notebooks, sand ilverware. We had 3 kids at that point and a newborn.”
“How did you do it?” we asked.
They responded, “We just did. There was no other option. We did our best, relied on God, and kept going.”
When asked what objects first came to mind after hearing about the looting, our mother thought of the green crystal vase her cousin had gifted her from a trip to Congo. She also thought of the bear coats my brothers wore as kids (pictured in the slideshow). Our father’s answer was his papers—his lectures, eulogies, and the poems he had written for our mother.
In their eyes, we could feel the weight of every stolen object and memory. But what shone through was not bitterness, but love. A love, light, and grace that has survived everything. We’re very blessed to have them as our parents and greatest teachers. Then, the moment shifted. Our father asked us to fetch the tea, so we did. We played them our new songs—the funny ones. They laughed, we drank tea, and life carried on.
Dearborn Blog 