Every branch carries a story.

Khalid & Shahira Sadiq

Written by Dalia, their granddaughter.

My paternal grandparents, Khalid Sadiq, born in 1927, and Shahira Sadiq, born in 1932, came from Dayr al-Qasi in the Akka district. Dayr al-Qasi was located north of Akka and about 5 km south of Lebanon. My grandparents always spoke of the natural, lush beauty of their village in the Upper Galilee, set on a hill surrounded by olive and fig trees. Tobacco farming was also an important source of income in the Dayr.

My Tata's grandfather was the mukhtar of the village. Her father's house is still standing, and many have documented it because of the beautiful paintings on its walls and ceilings.

My Tata was sent to Haifa to live with her uncles so she could attend the Sisters of Nazareth School. She later returned to Dayr al-Qasi and taught in the village school. My Jiddo graduated from the Arab College in Al-Quds, one of the leading academic institutions in the Arab world at the time. In the same family spirit that valued education, he became a mathematics teacher and later taught in Syria as a young man.

Before their exile in 1948, the families of Dayr al-Qasi began hearing reports of violence in other Palestinian villages. The village was then attacked, and the families were forced to flee in October 1948. They left with only a small number of belongings, believing they would soon return. Both my Jiddo's and Tata's families fled by foot toward Lebanon, only a few kilometers away. Some of the elderly initially remained behind to tend to their homes, believing the displacement would be temporary. They too were eventually forced to leave.

My Jiddo, 21 years old at the time, was teaching in Hama, Syria, and his immediate family later joined him there after reaching Lebanon. My Tata, 16 at the time, remained in Lebanon with her family, as did many others from Dayr al-Qasi.

During the first years of exile, my Jiddo often visited Lebanon from Syria to see his family. It was during this period that he and Tata fell in love. They married in 1952 and moved to Kuwait. In the 1950s, Kuwait recruited Palestinian educators, and my grandfather began teaching there.

In 1958, he received a scholarship to the American University of Beirut. Although he and Tata already had three small children — my father Mazin, my uncle Maysara and my aunt Mona — he left teaching to pursue an engineering degree. Their youngest child, my uncle Hazim, was born during those years. After graduating from AUB in 1962, Jiddo returned to Kuwait, where he joined the Ministry of Water and Electricity, held senior engineering positions, and later started his own contracting company. Kuwait was where my father grew up and where I was born.

At the outbreak of the Gulf War in 1990, our family was uprooted again and moved to the United States.

Despite repeated displacement, my Jiddo and Tata kept our Palestinian identity and pride at the center of our upbringing. Through them, we inherited a deep belief in the importance and power of education. Even after my father passed away, may he rest in peace, Tata helped hold our family together. In her grace and strength, she taught us to keep our spirits and our heads raised.

Though they were never allowed the return home they had waited for, Jiddo Khalid and Tata Shahira carried Palestine with them and placed it in the hearts of their children and grandchildren every day.