I've been to a funeral today. My husband's grandmother's sister passed away this morning. She was probably about 100 years old.
Khalti Turkiya was an amazing woman. She was extremely intelligent even though she had no formal education. Typical of most Libyan families, our family is huge, but Khalti always knew everyone's name. She never forgot anyone. Not only that, she would remember all kinds of facts about everyone; what they liked or didn't like, any health problems they might have and any interesting stories they might have. She wasn't being nosey, she was just sociable and friendly. Always happy to talk to everyone.
In Libya when ladies get old and their children have all grown they 'go visiting'. This means they visit everyone's family, spending a few days with each. We always loved it when Khalti Turkiya made it to my husband's family home. We looked forward to her visits because Khalti was a storyteller! We would all gather around and she would entertain us with accounts of her life, stories that were true and also tales she made up in her head. She kept us mesmerized and because her stories were often funny we were always laughing. She also had a vast amount of poetry and songs that she had memorized, some going back to her early childhood years. I was always amazed at the things Khalti knew about. She was probably a genius in her own right - imagine if she had been given an education!
May God bless her and reward her for all the good that she did in her life!
Before leaving the house for the funeral I checked my email and found that my sister had bought me a subscription to flickr. So now I can upload pictures to my hearts content. Have a look. Thanks Sis!
Saturday, June 10, 2006
5 comments:
Guidelines for submitting comments
You can rant, you can rave, you can question. I ask only that you are thoughtful about what you write.
Comments are reviewed by me before publication. I don’t edit comments, but I do reserve the right to delete comments that violate my guidelines.
These are the kinds of comments that I think are not appropriate for publication:
- Defamatory or libelous remarks
- Abusive, harassing, or threatening language
- Obscene, vulgar, or profane language
- Racially, ethnically or religiously offensive words
- Illegal or encourages criminal acts
- Known to be inaccurate or contains a false attribution
- Infringes copyrights, trademarks, publicity or any other rights of others
- Impersonates anyone (actual or fictitious)
- Off-topic or spam
- Solicits funds, goods or services, or advertises
Please submit comments in English.
Thank you
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
-
After living in Libya for twenty-six years you would think my Arabic would be perfect, but it is far, far, far from that. I do get my point ... -
In my last post I wrote about how I felt on the first day of my arrival back to Libya after a month's absence. I said it was dirtier and...
-
The rains have finally come, accompanied by lightening and thunder. The weather is cooler and the dust has settled. We'll see how treac...
Ahhhhhh, I've tried that many times but Paypal is the only stupid system in the world that still thing Libya is under embargo..cannot believe!
ReplyDeleteMay God bless her soul. It is aways wonderful to have a "Elder" to recount the tales of the Family.Try to keep her sprite alive with your childern by retaling her stories every once in a while . Maybe they will remember them to one day pass on to their childern in time .Syd
ReplyDeleteMay God Bless her kind soul Khadijateri.
ReplyDeleteAllah yerhamha
ReplyDeletemay Allah bless her soul. :(
ReplyDelete