Lina Bou Hamdan

Lina was born in Beirut, she was eleven when the Lebanese civil war started. Her family moved to Gharife village where she grew up and attended school.

However, Lina did not pursue a university degree, because she got married young and became the mother of a son and two daughters.

Lina left Lebanon in 1986 with her husband who was offered a job in the United Arab Emirates. In the UAE, she worked with the International Monetary Fund.

In 2012, her husband's financial conditions worsened, and they had to come back to Lebanon.

Back in the country, Lina wanted to support her family and financially help her husband, thus, she attended a nursing training course at Balamand University. Her certificate allowed her get a job at the maternity ward at Saint George Hospital.

Lina was a humanitarian at heart, she was helpful, and caring. A smiling angel for every patient she assisted. Patients would always praise her in their feedback to the hospital where she worked.

Lina was not only a nurse, she was also the perfect loving mother who dreamed of seeing her children all grown up and starting their own families; she wanted to see them happy…

Lina's husband, Nabih, was scheduled for an eye surgery, and Lina wanted to be with him. Therefore, she decided to work on her off day on August 4, to be able to accompany him during the operation…

A little bit after 6:00 PM, there was news about an explosion in Beirut. Lina's husband called his children to check on them, and make sure they're safe. He tried Lina but she didn’t answer her phone. He asked his son Mazen to go to the hospital where she worked. Mazen arrived two hours later, and went up to the fifth floor where he found his mother on the floor, her bones broken. She was dead; the explosion pushed her to the wall and she was trapped under the ceiling that fell over her head.

Mazen stayed with his mother's dead body until 10:00 PM, when his father arrived with a coffin, to take her on her final journey.