Ruqayya

Ruqayya was studying that day when the telephone rang. Her mother answered it. It was a call from the second wife of her father. After a small chat between them from which she couldn’t understand a word they were saying, her mother looked at her, and said; “Your father died, Ruqayya!”.
A couple of hours before, there had been another call where they had been informed that the father had an accident and he was in the hospital. The mother asked Ruqayya if she would come along with her and her brother to visit the father. She told them that she would visit him the following day as she had to study for the upcoming exam.

A couple of hours was the timeframe between the life and death of her father. A couple of hours before, there had been a chance to see him but the chance was gone forever. It was a big shock and she found it difficult to accept his death for many years after that. She kept waiting for him to come back. She saw him in every man wearing a galabiya, hoping he was still alive and that he was just trying to pull their legs. She waited for him to say sorry.

She was young and didn’t realize that sometimes people might disappear forever without having a second chance with them. She learnt that people, especially those who mean a lot to us, should come first and then other things should follow. She learnt that death is cruel and it sometimes comes without precedent or warning. She learnt the lesson the hard way.