Joseph Tanios Roukoz
Joseph grew up in Kartaba, in a family of five children, two sons and three daughters. He studied in his village school, and graduated from the Lebanese University with a degree in History. He worked with CMA CGM Lebanon, a shipping company based at the Port of Beirut.
He married Graziella Karam in 2012, and they had an only son, Anthony, who was almost six years old. Joseph had a gut feeling he will die before he could see his son graduate from university, he was unfortunately right.
Although Joseph worked in Beirut, he had a special with his village, and he was part of multiple religious community activities in Kartaba. He played different musical instruments during religious celebrations, and he was a treasurer for a religious association. He also helped with the restoration of Saint Elias Church in his village, and in 2006, he participated in the digging of Darb Salib Trail through Kartaba, with three other friends who died in the same explosion.
Joseph was generous, and helpful. He lived his life one day at a time, and was committed to create change through his good deeds.
He loved life so much that he used to celebrate his birthday, and invite many of his friends and acquaintances, under the pretext that it was a summer goodbye party. Unfortunately, he could not celebrate his 45th birthday, in 2020.
On August 4, 2020, his wife called him at the end of his shift to check if he would be late coming home. He told her he will be leaving the port in ten minutes. On his way out, the gate was closed and he had to leave from another exit; At that moment, everything turned into a nightmare. Joseph was missing. Hours passed so slow, and there was no news about him…
The next day, Joseph's family heard through the media that there were anonymous corpses at the morgue of Rafic Hariri University Hospital. His brother Georges and his wife Patricia went to the hospital to check if he was among the dead, and there they found him; a real tragedy. According to the medical report, Joseph died from a head trauma.