Thirty Years....

When my Dad was here in October he spoke with his sister for the first time in thirty years. Its not like they were lost to each other as we always knew where she was, its just that because Lebanon and Israel are still in a state of war since 1948 they cant speak to each other.

Like a lot of people from South Lebanon my Aunt Hasiba and her husband Chafik Atmeh lived and worked in Palestine. Now most of my uncles did the same prior to 1948 as did most people from Derdghaya. One of the reasons they worked there was the Palestinian Lira was worth eight Lebanese Lira's. Most people came back when the war started but there is a lot of people that couldn't make it back to Lebanon and remained in Israel. Most live in Haifa, Jish and Nazareth.

My Aunts family were one of the ones that never made it back. My Aunt came back but was put into a Palestinian camp in Tyre. With a new born and her husband staying in Haifa she decided to be reunited with him as life in the camp was hard. She made contact with the Red Cross and they took her back across the border to Haifa where she was reunited with her husband.

My Dad and Aunts story isn't one of not knowing about each other and meeting for the first time but of siblings torn apart by war and not having a lot of contact. My dad has been lucky as he has seen or spoken to Hasiba several times over the last 60 years, where as my other Aunts and Uncles haven't had that luxury as they have always lived in Lebanon.

As we live in Australia contact through the 70's and 80's was always there. I remember as a child the 3am wake up call from my Aunt. But over time for one reason or another we lost contact then my father moved back to Lebanon in the mid 90's so there was definitely not going to be any contact because of the war in 1948.

A couple of years back when I started doing the family tree I got curious about her and her family but how was I to contact her or find someone that could help me. I came up with an idea that I might be able to contact her through the church in Haifa but as with most things it just sat on the back burner while I just plodded along with other things that were easier. While I was in Lebanon in 2010 my Dad believed she had passed away around 2000 as they had visited her husbands family in Ein Ebel and that's what they believed. I found it hard to fathom and I suppose I needed proof of that.

When I got back to Sydney I searched for a church contact in Haifa. My mum told me that her husband was Maronite so I emailed the Bishop of Haifa asking whether they knew of her or her family. Like with most things you don't get your hopes up, so I wasn't surprised that I didn't receive reply to even confirm they had received the email. Maybe 3-4 months later I had someone add me on Facebook with a message saying they were my Aunts granddaughter. I nearly fell over.....

Messages were hard to understand as they were in Arabic written in Latin fonts. Eventually I spoke with Aunts grandson via MSN and learnt they had received my email via his wife's brother who was a priest. I was so stoked to have spoken to one of them I was also over the moon to learn my Aunt was still alive and well though she was bedridden since taking a fall in 2000. I eventually spoke on the phone to my Aunt on New Years day 2011 and all she was worried about was making sure her brothers and sister were ok especially my Aunt Hichmeh as they are the only girls.

So now with the help of Skype we are always in contact and Dad and his sister got to talk and see each other through the wonders of the Internet.....