Ayat Mansour

Ayat, with her innocent features, beautiful laugh, and kind heart, dreamed of getting the highest scores on her high school exams so she could fulfill her dream of studying English translation and make her martyred father, Abu Kamal al-Qaisi, proud. Ayat had begun her journey of memorizing the Quran, but God willed that she would leave this fleeting world before completing her dream. She was killed along with her mother, grandmother, uncle, and his family in a sudden missile strike on the twenty-fifth night of Ramadan, thus rejoining the father she had always told me she missed terribly and whose absence broke her heart. God willed it so, and reunited them in His paradise. She had a feeling she was going to leave this world. On the night she was killed, she sent me a message: "Today is special... Take care of yourself, my dearest love, may God protect you." That was the last message between us, and Ayat departed to eternal bliss.