‘How the hell do you hold things together when all of a sudden you have to free hours upon hours every day to take care of your disabled mother? And now this stupid war. How do you make room in your life for a war?’ Nairouz, a Palestinian woman from Haifa in her 40s, has… Read More “Six Weeks – The Summer of 2006” in Verity La Literary Magazine
In the evening, I carry the pieces of my mother’s stories up the Haifa stairs. I carry them gently, for I am afraid to drop one of them, lose a second, forget a third. For these are not merely pieces of her stories, they are pieces of herself. She has given me these stories, memories,… Read More from “Six Weeks – Summer of 2006” work-in-progress
another excerpt from “Six Weeks,” current work-in-progress. To read previous excerpts from this work: (1) Part one (2) Part two In the next few months, a longer piece will appear in the online literary journal Verity La. Week Three It takes me more than ten minutes to open the door. I insert the key and… Read More “Six Weeks – Summer of 2006” work-in-progress
Second excerpt from “Six Weeks” I wake up to the muted howling of the siren. I open my eyes and, for a few seconds, my mind is a complete blank. Then I jerk up into sitting position, grabbing my phone from the bedside table. The phone is blinking with four unanswered calls. 9:47. Shit. Shit,… Read More Six Weeks – work in progress.
“Six Weeks,” the new novel I’m working on currently, is exhausting me of all energies. It is the most difficult of any writing I have ever done. At its center, the fragile relationship between a woman and her disabled mother. Both daughter and mother have to deal with their own challenges in life, while trying… Read More Sketches of Women with Disabilities in Public Spaces: Sketch 1-2
Sharing the first fragment from a new novel-in-progress, with the initial title of “Six Weeks.” Nairouz, a Palestinian woman from Haifa in her 40s, has to make room in her too-busy life, to care for her disabled mother for six weeks, when the Second Lebanon War starts in July 2006. The novel follows her life… Read More “Six Weeks” – work in progress
photo credit: (c) Kholood Eid, 2014 A few nights ago, I was asked by my father to come in the evening and shower my mother. My mom suffered a severe stroke in 2008, which left her disabled and in need of care. During the first couple of years, my dad and I would help her… Read More The Art of Caring for a Disabled Mother
