Suzan Khatib

Susan was spending a few days at her family’s home in Beirut, away from her marital home in Bekaa. The first explosion reminded her of the Israeli attacks on Lebanon, and her maternal instincts pushed her to protect herself and her three children from an unleashing craze. As the second explosion happened, her body was covered with glass and blood. She also sustained a severe injury to her left eye. As soon as she could pull herself together, pregnant Susan accompanied her children outside the house in search of a hospital in Beirut and its suburbs.

Her injuries required immediate surgery to save her life, and her husband rushed her to Jeb Jennine hospital to undergo the needed intervention, after which she spent almost a year recovering from the pain. Yet, she did not fully recover, and she still suffers from a partial visual impairment. 

Susan has developed a fear of loud sounds and things made of glass. She fears the explosion might happen again in a country where nothing is shocking anymore. Susan repeats with a broken heart: “I am thankful it happened to me and no one else in my family was affected.” 

In the face of adversity, the explosion’s victims, unlike the criminals living among us, rise above human selfishness. 

If we are to put the thoughts of the criminal into words, they would say: “Thank God it has happened to the people, while my men and my interests remain intact.”