Just Make Du'aa

• t h i r t y • t w o •

Dina

My grandmother had always been a vital part of my childhood. Even after I moved away, my parents made sure that my contact with her never withered. When she found out I was getting married and she wouldn't be able to come, she was devastated. So much that my mother tried finding a way to bring her over. But she was too ill, so we settled for facetime. The mere thought that she won't be around anymore seemed too complicated for me to understand. My grandmother has been just out of reach for as long as I can remember, and now she may not be? It didn't make any sense.

I guess that's the reason why the emotional strain of it all didn't hit me right away. After Farouz booked the flight there I was packing with a light heart, as if we were going on a vacation. He buzzed around me for a few hours, asking if I was okay, if I needed anything. But honest to God I felt fine.

And I kept feeling fine when the last plane landed, and I was fine when we took a taxi to my grandmother's house. Everything was fine.

My parents were already there, finding a flight had taken us a while. So they'd been there for a couple of days by the time we arrived. There was a dark cloud that seemed to be hanging over everything everyone was doing, but nonetheless my family was bursting with life, "Dina!" My two closest cousins exclaimed as they skipped down the stairs, their children holding onto the rails and looking at me with wonder from above. They were sisters, the younger one got married a year after the other, about 5 years before I did. One was a year older than me and the other 6 months younger, but they each now had two toddlers of their own that I'd never seen before. "How are you habibti I missed you so much!" The eldest, Zehra, cried in my native language as she hugged me. She was always a crier.

"Alhamdulillah," I replied in arabic, clinging onto her as tight as I could. It's been too long since I last saw them, unfortunately I wasn't even here for their weddings! But the second we saw each other it was as if no time had passed. The trio was immediately back. "How are you?"

She pulled back and nodded, a sad smile on her face, "we're all here. That's all that matters." Like I said, Zehra was the crier, she loved everyone too much and a situation like this was bound to wreck her.

"Oh my God," Zara, the younger one rolled her eyes and shoved her sister aside. "Move out of the way with your damn depressing attitude. Dina, you look hot as usual." She winked, pulling me into an even more powerful hug. "And your husband's even hotter," she whispered in my ear, reminding me of the man who's been standing patiently next to me the entire time.

I chuckled, Zara was always a bit too blunt for our culture's liking, but Zehra and I loved her for it. "Zehra, Zara, this is my husband Farouz," I said in English, speaking a bit slower than I usually would so they could understand me clearly. "Farouz, my two favorite cousins."

"How are you?" Zara asked, taking his hand and shaking it. She took in Farouz's shock at the contact and laughed, "we are family," she spoke in broken English, "don't overthink it."

Farouz loosened next to me, and gave her a big smile, "it's great to finally meet you, Dina talks about you two kteer!" he said, using the Arabic word for 'a lot.' The two girls both exclaimed, surprised by his nearly perfect accent no doubt. "She's been traching me," he said, ushering at me with his head then taking my hand in his.

"Wow," Zehra sighed, "you two are so cute!" she had flipped back to Arabic, assuming that Farouz could understand her. And from his reaction it was easy to tell that he could. "I wish my husband still showed me an ounce of affection! All he cares about is how much food I can cook him and if his kids are happy." She said this with a wink and a tone that told us she was clearly joking. "Come on up!" she said, turning around to lift a toddler that somehow made his way down the stairs, "everyone's waiting for you!"