2019 DEDICATION TO
ANA HUNA
By Rabia Ahmadi, Director of Family Services, Miry’s List
About a year ago, when my daughter was five, she asked me a question: “Why did we leave Afghanistan? We have no one here. Nothing here.” I sat on the end of her bed as my four-yearold son listened from across the room. I started telling them the truth. “It wasn’t safe for us. There were explosions by our house. We were afraid. We were scared. We had to leave Afghanistan.” I kissed them goodnight. The next morning, my daughter had more questions. “Will explosions hurt my grandparents? My aunts, my uncles?” She had been up all night thinking about this. “What about my classmates, my cousins? Did you think of them?” An impossible question. A mother’s heartbreak. I realized I made a mistake by telling her the truth. That truth is not for my children. That truth is for my friends. I remember thinking at that moment, I need to tell my friends. And I need my friends to help me figure out what truth to tell my children. When I was still in Afghanistan, colleagues who had already come to the United States warned me: “Rabia, you won’t have any friends in the U.S. People won’t have time to listen to you.” I worried about leaving my relatives and being with just my two kids and husband. Loneliness is a form of death — a dying of the soul, not the body.
MIRY’S LIST ANNUAL REPORT 2019
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MIRYSLIST.ORG
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