rekindled spirit

the birthday girl

yanet cuddus is a root that runs deep into my 4th year of life. that’s of course when we met but our association is older than our existances. our fathers were also childhood friends. they attended elementry school together, went to the airforce academy, and both fought for the eritrean independence army. not to mention her father was my parents’ best man at their wedding. although we were both born in eritrea, our fist meeting did not take place until 1976 in jeddah, saudi arabia.

 

1978: l to r, yanet, me, my cousin senait, and eshadai

we eventually moved to texas, her to houston and i to dallas where as teenagers had so much fun that we have stories we share to this day. now she lives in the next village called überlingen and we continue to have times that will make for wonderful stories to share for the next 30 years to come. 

before

senait and yonas are my cousins. children of zufan, my father’s sister. we were reunited after almost 24 years after they agreed to become the godparents of michael. what an honor. they say for them, but also for me, for us.

until i was ten years old, i was an only child. i envied very much that senait and yonas had each other. i badly wanted a brother or a sister. we were told by our parents that we were all siblings. so i believed it. for some time i believed that i was their oldest sister. everywhere we went we told everyone that we were all siblings and believe me, i was proud to be their oldest sister. they have lived in england now for over 20 years and we just never got around to meeting.  meeting after all these years was very special and exciting.

during

after

michael, my father, and michael, my son

“the biggest thing in the world- bigger than the ocean and the sky- is your heart”

-do hyun choe (sugi master)

i had not seen my sweet father in over a year. he arrived from dallas to attend michael’s (who is named after him) christening. my father is a man of few but wise words. he gave a beautiful toast at the reception. i ‘m sure it was not easy to stand up to speak in front of an audience but i am even more certain that his words were from his heart and not at all hard to say. with effortless elegance he told the story of how he met my mother. he truly is a noble, honorable, compassionate human being. here he is with his grandbabies the afternoon he arrived.