at dawn, and go down along the paths of the valley... The owner of the house there still remembers her well, and whenever I pass by him in Freikeh, he tells me about the sad woman who used to rise before the sparrows and sit on the overlook of his house...

And "Nawafil" remembers her — the woman with whom "May" lodged. Her name was Nafleh, but May called her Nawafil. She knew no other woman of Freikeh.

Even the paths of the village May never walked, in her days with us... And we respected her wish and never once tried to draw her out of her seclusion, nor did she care to come out of that seclusion.

Three months, summer months, passed over "May" in Freikeh — she inviting us to eat tabbouleh she made with her own hands, or we making it and carrying it to her house...

The Freikeh valley from the balcony of "May's" house

And our summer there passed in the blink of an eye... And May returned to Beirut, and from Beirut to Egypt...

And in Egypt the news of my brother Ameen's death reached her, and she sent us her condolences; and when she herself died, we did not know whom to console for her...

A monthly women's magazine published by the Lebanese Women's League

P.O. Box 1284 — Beirut — Lebanon

Responsible director: Heneni Tarcha

The supervisory committee: Afifi Majdalani

Salwa Mahmasani Moumina

Najla Cortas Zureik

Editor-in-chief: Fouad Suleiman

Editorial secretary: Edvick J. Shayboub

Administrative director: Fuad Badr

Telephone 48-00