A Picture I Worth 1000 Words

I love my job, really I do. I have never had a job that gave me such immense opportunities to meet so many people from so many different back grounds. I’ve mentioned before how sometimes people will make an indelible impression on me, most recently that was Hope. Yesterday it was a woman I’ll call Star because that fits her bright and shining personality.

Celestial Being

Yesterday morning I walked into the room of a woman who had a last name so long and unpronounceable it makes me feel ignorant knowing that even if I saw it again I’d never recognize it or be able to say it. She sat in her bed feeding her baby as I asked her if she was interested in getting hospital photos of her new son. She looked up at me as she asked me questions and I saw how beautiful she was, perfect olive skin with big dark eyes and a radiant smile. Her dark wavy hair was pulled back. Star is the embodiment of the phrase ‘Exotic Beauty’. She spoke slowly and had an accent I had trouble placing. I returned with my camera when she had finished feeding her son and we chatted as I took her information and dressed the baby. This was her third child, first son. She and her husband hadn’t decided on a name for him yet. She wasn’t sure if there was an outfit for the baby and was delighted when a quick peek into the closet revealed the brand new outfit. As I positioned the baby for photos I asked her where she was from, she said Northern Iraq, that she was Curdish. I had to turn to look at her and she repeated herself as I’m sure I had an extremely ignorant look on my face. I asked her how long she’s been here, 10 years. She said her family is still in Iraq and she doesn’t know how they are. She briefly mentioned how hard it was in Iraq for her and her family, how they fled Iraq because the Curdish people were hated, how they walked to Turkey, how Turkey didn’t want them because they were Curdish and from Iraq and how it was terribly difficult to get to the US. Star spoke of her sister who had journeyed to the US with her but for some reason went back to Iraq. She told of how she left because of the racial hatred and war in Iraq and how the war had lasted so very long and how she would not go back. Star worried about her sister and her family in Iraq, that she didn’t know how they are right now because there are no phone lines, but she was glad things were changing. I wanted to ask her a million more questions most of them probably politically incorrect, but I wanted to know more about her and how she got here. I wanted her to keep talking so I could memorize her lovely voice. I wanted to touch her beautiful face just to see if she was real, maybe some of her beauty would rub off on me. I didn’t, it was time for me to go. Star thanked me profusely for taking the time to explain to her how she could order later, I thanked her for our conversation and congratulated her for her new baby. And it was over, it all took maybe 20 minutes, but I learned so much, she’s the first Iraqi that I’ve met and the first Curd also.