The scent of spring filled the village, and the smell of blooming flowers took over everywhere like warriors. A smile had nestled on my face. Suddenly, two warm hands covered my eyes, and a voice said: “I will lift my hands from your eyes, but do not open them.” He squeezed my hand in his and said to me:

— “Follow me.”

I replied with: “Alright, Agid.”

The warmth of Agid’s hand made the smile spread further across my lips. I had no desire to open my eyes; I wanted to tell him that we should just stay still and stay like this for all eternity.

After four minutes of blind, deliberate steps, he said to me:

— “Open your eyes…”

There was the great tree in the heart of the village that stood right in the middle of the village’s most beautiful greenery. The place where we had spent our childhood.

Quickly, Agid stepped in front of me and said with a smile:

— “ I have bought this plot of land from the village’s headman. We will break away from my father’s house and will build a house right here for us, and I will plant a Nectarine tree for you right at our threshold.”

Seeing his face, which was rich with smiles and hope, brought tears to my eyes. He knew that they were the tears of happiness yet still said:

— “I didn’t come into your life to watch tears fall from your eyes. Don't let your lips conceal the sweetness beneath—smile, my love."

With those words, I threw my arms around him in a tight hug, and so our days unfolded in pure bliss, until spring bloomed over our home once again.

The crying of our child woke us both before the call of the rooster. We both went towards Shaheen to soothe his weeping and go back to sleep. But Agid said to me:

— “I have to check on our house. God willing, tomorrow we can start moving our things, so our little boy can wake us up in our new home.”

After Agid ate his breakfast, kissed my forehead, and left. Happiness began to hover all around me, I began prepare by packing everything to move out, I gathered a few belongings together to make the moving easier for us, bus sun began to set and Agid had still not returned, I began to worry, fear took over my heart and I whispered to myself, “God forbid something terrible has happened to him while he was checking on our houses construction.”, Agid’s father was missing too, because my mother-in-low was worried too, I couldn’t handle it so i said to her:

— “I will go check on him near our house; maybe something has gone wrong!, he’s never been this late before.”

But as those words left my lips, Agid and his father appeared from a distance with their faces heavy with sorrow. Seeing Agid’s broken expression, a sudden terror took over me; I’ve rarely seen his face carry such despair.

As they were getting closer, Agid’s father broke the silence and said:

— “Tomorrow morning at dawn, we must leave the village. The Ba’ath regime has taken over every corner, arresting, torturing, slaughtering people everywhere. Today, all the men were gathered at the village headman’s house and decided to abandon the village.”

My mother-in-law and I stood frozen in shock, unable to utter a single word since the decision had already been made. All I could think about was Shaheen, asking myself, how will he bear the harsh weather and the freezing cold outdoors? Question after question flooded my head, eating me alive.

We woke up heavy-hearted; instead of stepping into our new house, we walked past it onto the open road. As we were walking, the number of people kept increasing behind us, moving further and further away from our homes until we reached the border of Turkey. We camped near the border, across the mountains and valleys. There were so many of us that it was called ‘ The Million-Person Exodus’

Agid tried his best to keep a smile on my face, but day by day, I grew weaker. Hunger and fear invaded my soul, my heart aching for my son. As it was very hard for me to take care of my little boy with nothing to feed him, the same little boy I used to nurse more than ten times a day.

Now, there is hardly any food for me to eat so I could nurse him. Day by day, he grew weaker; thus, I thought he was going to die in my arms. In the Million-Person Exodus, you could count the doctors by hand. I did everything I could to reach a doctor since they were distributing powdered milk based on the baby’s weight. After waiting in an overwhelmingly crowded line, that night I, Agid, and our son slept by the American doctor’s tent. Luckily, our turn came early in the morning. We stepped inside, and I showed my weak child to the doctor. But misfortune followed me like a dark shadow—the doctor took a look and said:

— “Your son will die within three days. I cannot weigh him nor give you the milk.”

I couldn’t stop crying; with all the pain trapped in my chest, I screamed curses at the doctor and at the nightmare we were living in, but Agid kept telling me, “Have hope; God will open a path for us.” his eyes always filled me with hope, but I couldn’t stop the tears from falling down my cheeks.

Later that day, against all odds, Agid managed to bring a tin of powdered milk. I carefully fed my little boy small amounts. Every day, I looked for mule tracks where fresh rainwater gathered; with the spoon and my hands, I would fill the small vessel to bathe my little Shaheen. After that tin of milk, Shaheen was getting better, but those three days the doctor had given him had not yet passed.

On the second day, I washed my son’s head once more. And every time, I would carefully dry him with a small piece of white cloth, which, once it was soaked, I would lay out over wooden branches to dry.

Later, a woman came up to me and said to me:

— “Please, give me this piece of cloth. My daughter just passed away; I have nothing to cover her with.”

I answered her with tear-filled eyes:

— “The doctors gave my son only three days to live, and I am saving this cloth to use as his burial shroud.”

Agid overheard our conversation, turned on me angrily, and said:

— "Have you come from God to know how many days your son will live? Give that piece of cloth to this woman.”

Agid’s anger silenced me, so I gave the shroud to the woman. And after I gave away that piece of cloth, my son began to get better day by day, and his color returned.

Agid and I brought Shaheen back to that same doctor, and with the help of an interpreter, we said to the doctor, “Thanks to God, our son is alive! Go ahead and weigh him, and give us the formula and baby food based on his weight”.