What Do We Do When We Miss You

Description

Buthaina Al-Essa asks in her story, written for children years ago, “I miss you… what should I do?” My friend Nana sends it to me.
I try to remember Buthaina’s story, the one I promised Nana I’d read to her someday, but I can’t. My memory is filled with blank spaces since the war began.

And I’ve read the story a thousand times, Nana, but I can’t remember what one does when they miss someone. Longing has been crowding our hearts since the war began. Longing for the village, for Tata’s face, for the olive trees in the field, for the warmth of home, for Nana, and for all those we left behind, not knowing we wouldn’t see them again soon. If we had known, Papa, that if we left home we wouldn’t see you again, would we have left?

The story persists, “What do we do when we miss you?” I don’t know, Dad, what to do when we miss you… I haven’t yet allowed myself to truly grasp your absence or understand it… But I know perfectly well that everyone who loves you misses you…