We believe that life is stable and that we will traverse it all, until our last breath, as we planned. Yet destiny has a far broader imagination than ours. In an instant, in less than a moment, everything changes; sorrow turns into joy, and joy may suddenly be overwhelmed by deep sorrow. It is true that joy and sadness, like autumn and spring, follow one another, but sometimes what happens is that one of them may stretch and elongate, making sorrow endless, or we mistakenly think that joy has become a permanent fixture that will never end. In both cases, we are wrong. Tarek and Shadi, Shadi and Tarek, are names that became on everyone's lips within just two days. We didn’t realize, two years ago, on August 4, 2020, the pain of Tarek Tayah, who lost his beautiful wife, jewelry designer Hala, in the Beirut port explosion. Nor did we heed, in June 2020, the grief of Shadi Kridey over the death of his brother, engineer Sakher, who was run over by a tractor. Two incidents turned the lives of these men, as well as their families, into a deep, blood-stained darkness. Just a few days ago, no more than the fingers of one hand, Tarek and Shadi were relieved from their severe pains, but they left behind children who still desperately need support and a shoulder to grow up in a life that is often unjust. Ask them. Ask Tarek and Hala's children, Tarek Jr., Tia Maria, and Tamara, and ask Umm Sakher (the mother who lost two sons, Sakher and Shadi) and Shadi's four children and Sakher's three children, and you will hear one answer: even our heartbeats have started to pain us!
**The Recurring Tragedy**
What happened breaks the heart (of those who have a heart). The news spread: two Lebanese young men were among the crew of a helicopter that disappeared in Italian airspace. Gradually, the elements of the news began to take shape. They worked for the "Indevco Industrial Group." They were on a business trip to learn about modern paper-making technologies. Hours passed filled with many prayers. However, the pain of the living intensified when they learned who Tarek and Shadi were. Tarek is Hala's husband, and Shadi is Sakher's brother. The pain grew even stronger when they realized that each one has his story, children, and sorrows.
Tamara Tarek Tayah, or "Tam Tam" as her "papa" and "mama" call her, a girl with beauty akin to her mother and resilience like her father's, is now without both parents. The day before yesterday, she wrote to her father Tarek mourning him: "I do not know what I have done to deserve all this. Rest in peace, my father. I love you so much." Emmanuel Macron, to whom Tamara presented a gilded map of Lebanon made by her mother during his visit to Lebanon, said to Tamara yesterday through his official Facebook page: "I am with you." The French president wrote: "On September 1, 2020, I listened to many testimonies in Beirut, one of which affected me deeply—Tamara's testimony, who lost her mother in the explosion. The reason that drives me for Lebanon is Tamara and the hope she embodies, the hope of Lebanese youth." He added: "In the Italian incident, Tamara lost her father. I tell her that I share her pain, and my thoughts are with her in this terrible ordeal more than ever. My heart is with her."
Tamara's mother dressed her in princess outfits and took her to Disneyland, making her dream. She made her a happy, strong princess. She wanted to raise her to be a strong young woman able to continue, along with her brother Tarek and sister Tia Maria, the journey of life no matter how difficult it might be.
Life is indeed strange in what it scripts of fates and what it conceals in mysteries. It is strange that both Shadi and Tarek came together in their shared destiny, equal in sadness two years ago, and equal in death. It is strange that they departed in Italy, on a business trip, over the Tuscan mountains. They were surely thinking in that moment about everything, anything, except that this trip via helicopter would be their end. Tarek was smiling. We saw him smile in the last video he sent to his three children, Tarek Jr., Tia Maria, and Tamara. He was used to calling them dozens of times on short days. Over the past two years, he tried to be both a father and a mother. The fate of the three children is extremely harsh.
There, in "Mont Cusna," Tarek and Shadi met their end. One from Kesrouan, and the other from Akkar. At that moment, Shadi might have thought a lot about his brother Sakher and his mother, Umm Sakher, who would live through death twice while still alive. Tarek might have thought of the reunion with his life partner Hala and then thought of his children after them. It is a mere second separating life from death, but it feels like an eternity in the moments of death. They were flying over the Mont Cusna mountains, which rise to 2,121 meters. These are mountains known as the dead man, or the sleeping man, or the giant. They resemble a man. Indeed, some fates and meetings in departure are strange.
Many mourned the two men: Tarek (born 1962) and Shadi (born 1975). Politicians, party members, journalists, industrialists, and citizens crushed by this damned death. Death is a right? They know that, but it is "overbearing" with many various methods. MP Naim Afram mourned them "with a burning heart" as well. The Free Patriotic Movement, where Shadi held the position of coordinator of the Investment Committee in the Finance Committee, mourned him. The Minister of Energy did the same because Shadi was a board member of the Electricité du Liban. However, before all positions and affiliations, Shadi was dying each day, since Sakher's death, multiple times. Nothing "counts" in the face of the death of those we love. Anyone who followed his recent activity on "social media" would notice his daily posts: O Lady... O Saint Charbel... O Mar Maroun... O Saint Rita... O Saint Augustine... He was searching for the meaning of death before he died. He repeatedly listened to Maronite monk Father Marwan Khoury speak about death, asking: what is death? And only the talk about death as life gave him comfort. He heard Father Khoury say: "When death comes, it is just like life coming; the fetus during labor hours is comfortable in its mother's womb, she pulls it to come out while it pulls to stay inside her. When it exits, it screams, and its openings open up, and it lives, no longer accepting the idea of death. Conversely, when the hour comes, death pulls the person towards it, and the person pulls to remain alive. When death overcomes them, we wish we could ask them whether they wish to return to life. There they will discover another happiness, which is true happiness in life with God."
Shadi, like Tarek, wanted not to fear death or its harshness. They wanted to transcend sadness and smile again. They were trying to do that, and whenever they grew weary, a voice inside each of them would say: please try again. Tarek was always distant from social media. Shadi was more active, often responding to his wife Sarita Fghali, the daughter of Kfar Abida in Batroun, who urged him to take family photos with their four children, as if she wanted to ensure them a wealth of photographic memories.
Tarek and Shadi will return to Lebanon. The remains of each will return today, tomorrow, or the day after. Arrangements are being made for that, and the wound of the living is, while waiting, very deep. Everyone is asking themselves: how can children who lost their mother in the explosion—the culprits being free—understand the loss of their father in a terrible helicopter crash? How can Sakher's children understand that those who whispered in their ears the day their father died: "I will be like your father from now on," lost their second father in two years? How will Sarita tell her four children that Shadi will not return? And how, and how...? All the talk is meaningless. Everything said will remain empty in the face of the weight of some calamities that do not come alone.
**Remembering Hala**
Many remembered Hala Sbagh Tayah in the past two days. Many recalled her laughter and her expressions of love for her children always: "my son my sun... My life Tia... My queen Tamara..." She was a mother to three children, one of whom is an autistic twin. Behind Hala's constant smile was pain. Her pursuit of a case for autistic children through Open Minds stemmed from her determination to lead her daughter and all other autistic children to the right shore. This is her fate—often a cruel one.
In a few days, we will forget Tarek and Shadi as we previously forgot over 220 victims of the Beirut port explosion. But let us remember, whenever we look at the sky, at the stars, that if it weren't for the angels in heaven, those on earth wouldn't be able to continue their journey in life. Tarek Jr., Tia Maria, and Tamara, Umm Sakher, Sarita, and Shadi's children and Sakher, look to the sky, at its sun, moon, and stars, and ask its inhabitants for patience, peace, and to smile, someday, again.
