Moussa, 75, and his wife Samira, 72, share their struggle after fleeing war in South Lebanon, holding onto hope amid harsh conditions.
My name is Samira, I’m 72, and I want to tell you about my husband, Moussa. We’ve shared a lifetime together, and he has always been my strength and my companion.
My husband is seventy-five years-old and is a man who has lived through many challenges. But nothing could have prepared us for this war. Three days into the conflict, he looked at me with that quiet determination of his, and we left Kfarrouman, our village in South Lebanon, under a sky filled with the terrifying sound of airstrikes. We brought nothing with us, leaving behind our memories, our small home, and everything we had worked for.
In Beirut, we didn’t find any apartments to stay in, so we found ourselves on the roof of a building, crowded with other families also searching for safety. We only had two mattresses and no blankets to shield us from the cold. Moussa shivers through those nights, his heart weak and his memory fading due to Alzheimer’s. But he holds on, constantly asking, “When can we go back?”
I wish I had an answer. Our village has no water, no food, no electricity. Going back to what? Still, every day he talks about our home. I think it’s what keeps him going. He wants to see the garden again, to hear the familiar sounds of our neighborhood, to feel like he belongs somewhere.
Living like this isn’t easy on either of us. We are both ageing, and every day feels like a battle against time and circumstances. But more than anything, we are holding on to the day we can return. It’s our last hope. I pray for him, for us, and for everyone like us who longs to find their way back to the life they were forced to leave behind.
This story was made possible thanks to the support of HelpAge network member IDRAAC (Institute for Development, Research, Advocacy and Applied Care); a non-profit non-governmental organisation dedicated to mental health in Lebanon. Together with HelpAge, they are working to deliver urgent humanitarian assistance to older people in Lebanon.
Learn more about our humanitarian efforts in the Middle East.