Saleh Dabbakeh, Tabnin, South Lebanon
A story of courage and heroism during the war in Lebanon in the summer of 2006. In spite of shelling and extreme fatigue, an aging lady never gave up on getting her wounded husband to hospital.
She carried her 80-year-old husband on her back at times and dragged him for a while. Then, Hajjah Sahrifah, 64 years old, used a wheelbarrow to get him to hospital when she could not carry the old man any more. But, she never let go of him.
Despite heavy and terrifying Israeli shelling during the course of the 15-kilometre trip from Tabnin to Aitaroun that lasted for 13 days, the thought of leaving him somewhere on the road did not even cross her mind. Her husband was hit by shrapnel, but she never gave up. She took him to Aitaroun Hospital for treatment.
How did she save their lives? How did the Lebanese Red Cross help? This is the story, as told by the couple at their home after the cessation of hostilities.
Terrified by the heavy bombing of their village, Tabnin, all of Sharifah's adult children fled to safer areas with their families. But 80-year-old Haj Ali Mahmoud Al-Akhras, the husband, would not heed their calls to leave the village.
But when 12 members of his family, including two brothers and 10 cousins died during a later bombing campaign, he had no choice but to leave, especially "after the Israelis told us to do so through leaflets", according to Sharifah. Her 40-year-old paralyzed daughter was with them when the exhausting trek began.
"What made leaving so difficult is that Haj Ali did not want to leave", explained Shrifah. "We could not leave our daughter behind, and there was no transport of any kind in the region". They travelled to a vocational school, 3 kilometres away, where they came under heavy shelling and were forced to hide for five days.
"We left our daughter with relatives and began walking to Bint Jbail (the largest town in the area)," Sharifa said, wiping a tear, "But Haj Ali was hit by shrapnel on the way when the Israelis began shelling Beit Yahoon"
Haj Ali asked his wife to leave him on the side of the road and continue her trip; he was now unable to move due to injuries sustained on different parts of his emaciated body. "Who would care for him," Sharifah wondered, before saying jokingly: "Although he can be a pain, I could not leave him"
She looked for someone to help her. But, no one was in the area. (An estimated one million people left South Lebanon during the 35-day-long war). "I had heard that a donkey was available in one of the houses of the village," said Sharifah. When she found no one and no donkey, Sharifah carried her husband on her back. His feet were dragging on the ground. "He was too heavy for me," she explained.
Then, to her relief, she found a wheelbarrow in a nearby house. She was very tired by now and could not carry him to place him in the wheelbarrow.
"I tilted the wheelbarrow on its side and placed it on the ground and began rolling him in it," Sharifah said, laughing. The wheelbarrow fell on the other side as she tried to set it upright and move ahead. "I tried once more, the wheelbarrow began to wobble and I staggered on my way to the house of Abu Hussein Hmoud"
Hussein Hmoud, the son of Abu Hussein, is a volunteer with the Lebanese Red Cross. Sharifah knew that from people she met during her journey. Abu Hussein called his son who came to the rescue in an ambulance and took Haj Mahmoud for treatment.
"We died many times on the road," says Haj Mahmoud, now back home in Tabnin with his wife and daughter. "I have seen things never experienced since the Turkish War"
"The strange thing," commented Ali Sa'ad, a Lebanese Red Cross volunteer who is in charge of the dissemination programme and also heads the Byblos Bank in Bint Jbail, is that: "Hajah Sharifah had a major operation to get rid of stomach cancer nearly four years ago. She came to the Bank to release her account to her son because she was in grave condition"
She survived. Maybe to prove that life with her husband was worthwhile.