‘Drop guard, if you love someone’
dubai — Some love stories deepen when it cut short. Here’s a man and woman, whose life can be scripted like a fairy tale.
Dubai-based businessman Adam El Daba lost his wife Noor Schebli a little over a month ago. Their romantic life is cut short by destiny but nothing stops him from keeping her, his memories alive.
Leave a little sparkle wherever you go — that is how Adam El Daba describes the life of his late wife who succumbed to cancer. She was only 26 and they had been married for only a year and a half.
Adam’s love for his wife is so deep that he refused to have an abrupt end to their love story. Adam still uses ‘present’ tense when he talks about Noor as he likes to believe she is still around. He even writes letters to her every now and then, as he says it makes him feel good and works as a therapy for him.
An inconsolable Adam has found solace in launching the #GoBeTheLight initiative where you create a 15 second video of you expressing to a family member or friend how much you care about them, with the initiative #GoBeTheLight.
People go on drugs or get into drinking when depressed; I chose to write to her. I have never written letters this way. Now it really helps as sharing everything with her has become a habit and it also helps me fall asleep.” Adam El Daba, Dubai businessman
Adam wants people to share their love before it is too late and go out of their way to recognise and appreciate their loved ones.
He is supported in this endeavour by “joi Gifts”, an online gifting platform, which Noor was supposed to join its marketing team once she recovered.
The #GoBeTheLight initiative invites people to step outside of their comfort zone and show someone they care about what they are willing to do for them. For example, Adam has recorded a video of himself singing a song dedicated to Noor for his own challenge.
“People go on drugs or get into drinking when depressed; I chose to write to her. I have never written letters this way. Now it really helps as sharing everything with her has become a habit and it also helps me fall asleep.”
Talking about Noor, he said: “She saw only good in those around her and she spread cheer and goodwill wherever she went. What was magical about her was that although she was fighting cancer for the past four years, she was the happiest soul I’d ever seen. She never lets anyone (besides her loved ones) know or feel that she was terminally ill. And if at all, she spoke about it then she would do it in a very off-handed manner like it is no big deal.”
During her treatments, Adam recalls that Noor was very excited and looking forward to joining the joi team as her passion for flowers exceeded her passion for anything else. “The goal of her life was to make people happy, and gifting is the best platform to deliver on that.”
Identifying a heart of gold
Adam narrated an incident that spoke volumes about his late wife. “Once we decided to go on a romantic dinner. On our way to the venue, we saw a woman and her two kids on the street (in Egypt). The homeless woman looked cold, bundled up on the sidewalk. Noor asked me to stop the car. She got out of the car and went and sat beside the woman. She started talking to her, and then pulled out some money and said “this is for your kids”.
“We cancelled our dinner and spent about an hour there, after which I called my driver to get in some blankets. This was Noor; way better than any 5-star dinner.”
Adam wants his wife’s legacy to be perpetuated through a simple message: “Stop caring about how others judge you, drop your guard, and go out of your way to recognise and appreciate your loved ones.”