Her nephew sensed that the situation was worsening, and was worried about her. He warned, “There are people from Mosul making use of the conflict to steal gold and money if you take it with you (while running from ISIS). It is better to leave it here and hide them.”
She took his advice, not realizing that this displacement would be permanent and that she would never again have access to her life’s savings.
“I have no money now. People ask me and I swear that I only have my ring. They know that I used to have wealth. I used to have a maid. But it is all gone now,” she said.
Finances, however, were far from her mind as she began to flee Qaraqosh. Although she originally fled in a car, a checkpoint refused to allow the passage of vehicles. So she stepped out and walked her way to freedom. One slow step at a time, she pushed each foot in front of the other until she walked the 50 miles to Erbil.
“I was walking from 3:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. I couldn’t walk fast enough. People who were walking with me, left me. Another group would come, but they would walk faster and leave me.”
Such strenuous activity put an enormous strain on her health. “I got sick a week after displacement. I don’t know, probably because I was terrified.”
Sara’s health has never recovered. She now finds herself in a small room above a large shopping mall. Her illness prevents her from leaving. Her lack of financial resources prevents her from affording life’s basic necessities, including medicine. Her age prevents her from rebuilding.
Displacement by ISIS inflicted enormous trauma on Iraq’s ever shrinking Christian community. Reconstruction goes on nonetheless. But for elderly believers, displacement placed them in a living coffin. With relatives permanently displaced, many are like Sara: completely alone and unable to easily access the aid available to others more mobile.
She puzzled over her life’s changes as she turned her Rubik’s Cube. Her plight is not uncommon among the displaced elderly. Rebuilding looks toward a future that they may not be able to access. But that doesn’t stop Sara from hoping that someday, something better may come.
For interviews, please contact Olivia Miller, Communications Coordinator: [email protected]