Hosny's immediate family bids him farewell
The days to come
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LIFE'S WORK...
With Nafie between the two Al-Ahram buildings; receiving an award from Minister Shehab; with colleague Sajini Dularamani in the 1970s; Graduating from AUC; Hosny's father, Guindy Habib; with his mother; with wife Moushira; with daughter Yasmeen
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The brass plate bearing his name fell off the door.
"Where is it?" asked his dedicated and caring chest consultant on his last home visit to my husband. Standing on our door step that afternoon we were both wondering.
"It was there this morning. I dusted it myself," I replied, overtaken by a painful gut feeling that remained with me, and which continued until the afternoon of Sunday, 10 August.
"It's gone, doctor," I said. We looked at each other, and the sorrowful look was reciprocated. Hours later Hosny was taken to hospital by ambulance and somehow I knew he was not coming home.
"How can I write Sufra Dayma again?" I asked Hani Shukrallah, his managing editor and soul-mate in the 14-year struggle to bring up the most decent paper ever. A tear had petrified in the corner of his eye. Holding my hand he said: "We want you to remain with us."
Nora, his devastated secretary, said I should do what he would want me to do. Jailan Halawi, a dear friend and a member of the Weekly family, held me close and told me the same. She had heard me ask Amany, another colleague and a dear friend, not to publish my recipe this week.
Last night, the second sleepless night without him next to me, his side of the bed now empty, I stretched out my hand to reach out for him. But he is not there anymore. I tried to talk to him and ask his advice, and felt him comforting me, asking me not to give up on my work as he never gave up on his, not once in 39 years of devotion and dedication.
For the past 14 years, since the launching of the Weekly, my beloved husband had reason to be proud of two children: our one and only Yasmeen, and his paper. He had witnessed both rise and shine: the Weekly, with all the cosmopolitan glamour it had achieved, and our daughter, a pretty young lady, graduated from AUC and working in a decent place, and with a fiance to compensate for the loss of a father who was second to none. A young, handsome man, who is amazingly another knight in shining armour, a copy of the decent, loving, caring, affectionate, self-denying, tender Hosny Guindy, without whom we must all face the days to come.
Moushira Abdel-Malek
Letter to Dad
I miss you Dad very much. I love you more than you ever imagined. And now after you have gone I feel extremely proud in front of the whole world that you are my father and I am your only daughter.
I never wanted to say good-bye this early and my only consolation is that I did not want to see you in pain or suffer. You have suffered enough in your life and you don't deserve that at all. Part of me is grieving because you left and I miss you badly and the other part doesn't want to be selfish and is happy you are relieved of pain. You have to know that seeing you in so much pain killed me and I always wanted to remove that pain but I never could. "You only deserve to live like a prince because you are a prince," as your very sincere and beloved doctor used to tell us.
And now all I want to do is apply all the lovely things you taught me, and try to become only half of what you were. You are always going to be my idol in life. I want you to be proud of me as I am proud of you now. I promise you that I'll be the perfect daughter you always wanted me to be.
Dad, I hope that up there you can see and feel all the love of your family, your friends, your colleagues. Everybody loves you and misses you. Dad, you have to know that you are special in every way. Every member of the family, every friend and every colleague is proud to have known you. I wish you could hear what people are telling mom and I about you.
I whispered in your ears before you left, but you couldn't hear me. I wanted to hear you say anything, but you couldn't talk to me or listen as you always did before. I know it was out of your hands because I had never talked to you before when you hadn't been listening. You always listened to me, listened to my problems, listened to my jokes, laughed with me and cried with me. Dad, I'll think of you in every step in my life because you'll always be in my heart, and I'll feel you with me all the time, guiding me through life and advising me of what to do like you always did. Just pray for me to be able to bear the pain of losing you as much as I can, because I can't imagine my life without you.
I want to tell you that your funeral was the most honourable funeral I've ever attended. You know why? It is because you are the most honourable man ever. You are an angel and you left us very peacefully, and even though you were suffering all these years you smiled.
One last thing I want to tell you is not to worry about mom or me. I know that you always worried about me, and you always thought about this moment and about how mom and I would be able to live without you. But like you already know, you left us to the person who will always take care of us exactly like you did, the person whom you loved like your son.. I promise you that we'll be as strong as we can..
Your only daughter,
Yasmeen
A last letter
My final letter to the editor:
Hosny,
I was privileged to be by your side as the gentle but bright glow of your life slowly, gradually, quietly dimmed till it completely faded away.
I was privileged but for the excruciating pain that I felt in my heart, and the feeling of utter helplessness seeing you slip away and not being able to help in any way.
I was privileged to be beside a man of your calibre and generosity, of your gentleness and modesty, at such a personal and intimate moment.
I have known you as a young man, a graduate, a relative, a friend. I have seen you as a husband, father, brother and son, always faithful and loving, always considerate, polite, always fair, always gentle and self-effacing.
It is God's will that you depart this planet on which you suffered so much in silence. We accept His will, and thank Him for having given you to us even for such short a time.
Our loss is immense. May your soul rest in peace.
Egypt, too, needs to be condoled. It has lost a man of indescribable worth.
Reine Naggar
