I have always had a phobia of hospitals and by January of this year, I had completely distanced myself even from the injured – perhaps out of fear that I might become one of them, as I was living under the same conditions.
But out of nowhere, my mother’s health deteriorated – she fell a number of times and had to undergo two major surgeries, one on her leg and another on her spinal cord.
So I accompanied my mother as a patient companion for three months. I was by her side in overcrowded wards in two hospitals, Al Helou International Hospital and Wafaa Hospital, both in Gaza City.
I supported and cared for her, seeing it as an opportunity from God to give back a fraction of the love she has always shown me.
But they were testing times. In my mother’s small room alone there were seven patients in what used to be a four bed space. …..more
