Iraq will 'never forget' St. Jude employee rejoices in 'new life' for homeland By Laura Coleman Noeth March 19, 2004 He learned English at a young age back in Iraq, but only in the past year has Rahif Al-Absawi found a deeper meaning in words like future and happiness. Because of the war that began a year ago today, he has hope for his family back home, he says. Because of the war and how he believes it will change his family, he named his daughter Farah, the Arabic word for happiness. "No words can describe how much better it is. The Iraqi people have a new life," said Al-Absawi, 38, a computer engineer at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. Al-Absawi found his own new life 10 years ago, when he arrived in the United States as a refugee after three years in a camp. In December, for the first time since he left his parents and nine siblings, Al-Absawi reunited with his family at the Kuwait-Iraq border. "I finally feel comfortable for my parents, my brothers and sisters and relatives. They are getting what they want." The year since the war began has been filled with emotion for Al-Absawi and his Iraqi friends. Bombs dropped on their homeland, civilians were dying, yet, amid it all, hope was rising. "I had mixed feelings," he said. "I worried about what's going to happen to the Iraqi people, they have been through a lot. We know war, we knew some innocent people would die." But then came news that Saddam Hussein's two sons had been killed in a U.S. raid on their home, then, in December, that Saddam himself had been captured. "Wake up, wake up, they got Saddam," yelled Al-Absawi's aunt in a 5:30 a.m. phone call from Iraq to an uncle who lives across the street from Al-Absawi. Also in the United States is his grandmother, who lost two sons in executions ordered by Saddam's regime. "If my grandmother knew those pilots who killed his (Saddam's) sons, she would go and kiss them," Al-Absawi said. Al-Absawi and his wife, Fatima, also from Iraq, married in 1999. They have a son, Amer, 3, and their daughter, Farah, was born in October. In their Berclair home, Al-Absa wi keeps videotapes of the past year's events. "When people at work talk about the war, my boss tells them to come and talk to me. I tell them I know they don't know what it's like, but the Iraqi people will never forget what America has done for us. We will always be grateful to America." |
