Family of drowned Syrians say goodbye
Deaths that ‘woke up the world’ mourned at Simon Fraser University campus
The smallest coffins are the heaviest.
Heartbreaking words appeared on a screen as friends and family gathered in Vancouver on Saturday to say goodbye to two little Syrian boys and their mother, refugees who drowned in Turkey trying to reach the shores of Greece.
The boys — three-year-old Alan and five-year-old Ghalib — and their mother Rehenna Kurdi were remembered as three “angels” who woke up the world. The boys: Two brothers who loved to play as much as they loved each other.
Their surviving father and Rehenna’s husband Abdullah Kurdi attended a funeral and burial in Syria on Friday, but friends and family, many of whom live in Coquitlam, held a memorial at Simon Fraser University’s downtown campus.
“In our Kurdish community we have heard about the endless amount of people who have drowned trying to survive, but Alan Kurdi woke up the world. His body on that beach is the outcome of our silence,” Nissy Kaye, a family friend, said.
“Alan, Ghalib, Rehenna: you three angels woke up the world, and please forgive us for letting you down.”
Tima Kurdi, the boys’ aunt who lives in Coquitlam, said she is worried about her brother Abdullah. “He’s not leaving the graves, sleeping beside them for three days,” Kurdi said.
Her voice shaking, Kurdi said that she blames herself because she paid smugglers $5,000 to take them in a boat, the one that flipped over in Aegean Sea not long after it had left for Greece.
“It’s my fault. I’m so sorry,” she recalled saying to her brother on the phone. He told her she should never blame herself and that she is the best sister in the world.
A photograph of the tiny body of three-year-old Alan washed up on the beach in Bodrum, Turkey, brought the plight of the Syrian refugees to the hearts and minds of people around the world.
“You did not deserve to die in the coldness of water and the coldness of human indifference,” read an obituary for Alan from the Sydney Morning Herald, posted on the screen at the memorial. “You were not a migrant. You were not a refugee. You were a three-year-old boy who wanted to play safely, away from the threats of violence and war.”
Framed photos of Alan, his brother and mother sat on a table draped in the Syrian flag. Yellow and white roses and white balloons adorned the stage.
When it came time to get in the boat, the boys were excited because they had heard about the abundance of toys in Europe, and thought they would get to play with them when they reached the other side, said family friend Hawer Said, wiping away tears.
Their mother was terrified to get in the boat but her desire to save her family “surpassed her fear of the water,” she said.