Years ago, I met Maggie, someone who would become one of my best friends, another sister.  After visiting me a few times in Canada, she felt like it was her second home and became a full Canadian citizen in 2015.  However, she had to return to Lebanon immediately to care for her aging mother who passed away shortly afterward. 

Lebanon was in crisis even before COVID or the explosion in Beirut and Maggie’s life and security rapidly changed. Lebanese currency has devalued repeatedly over the last year meaning that her life savings and family home have dwindled to almost nothing. She spent her life caring for her aging parents until they  passed away 4 months apart. The tangled web of Lebanese bureaucracy kept her there while she tried to sort out the next steps. Then the economy collapsed, food became scarce, war threatened and COVID happened. Now this.

But Maggie isn’t a faceless statistic on the news. She is dynamic, funny and creative. She surfs and rock climbs, she speaks 4 languages and teaches at university.  She summits mountains with a huge smile and stumbles down them on bad knees. She is proud, loud and never quits. She came to Canada and held my hand when I went through private pain that only my very closest friends knew about (and this was only a week after her dad died].  She has boundless energy but she feels beaten and battered by her circumstances. The only way she can get back on track is to start over in Canada. However, her funds are frozen by the government and resources are virtually non-existent  

She is my friend, my sister, and I want to help her recover. Despite pleading with her for months to allow me to help her, she has refused on grounds that she doesn’t want anyone to sacrifice too much for her. Her pride is one of the only things she has left. So I’m trying something a little different: if many of us give a small bit, she won’t feel like she’s putting anyone out. If we all help a little, we will allow her to restart her life in Canada with peace of mind.