At the end of my fifteen minute break today, I mindlessly checked my Facebook account. The news of the passing of Umalkhayr Abdi Omar blew my mind. I was not the same afterwards. The whole world seemed to stop for a while. I could not even tell where I was at the time - I know only the grief of a heart who lost a dear one with so much unsaid, so much not shared and so much more I even do not know...
As I started to get back to work, my mind raced back in time to my first encounters with her. It was the summer of 1999 when we both started our English Intensive Course at Amoud University. We did not have a meaningful encounter until the end of that semester on a fateful day when Yahya Mohamoud Ahmed, a classmate, and I walked up to her. We informed her our little plan to bring cameras on our exam day just for our records - mindful that not everyone, and especially not all female students, may like our idea. That was before the digital cameras and the smart phones. In a beautiful blend of mockery and wit, she declined. Silence prevailed. She let it linger. As our face plunged in disbelief, Suleiman Mohamed (a.k.a Haybe), another classmate, came to our rescue. He was sitting next to her at the platform in Sheikh Ali Jawhar High School. He told us that she was joking. Of course, Haybe and Umalkhayr knew each other better than Yahye and I did at the time. I learned years later that she actually did not mind and she just wanted to see our reactions. That day sticks with me. It was a mark of her gentleness in the midst of adversary and her sense of humour in the suspense of gloom.
However, it is never easy to allow yourself to indulge in the past, particularly when somebody you held so dear to your heart just departed. Come what may, I just continued this way. I had a couple of accidents here and there, but with no major injuries. The wound, or more accurately the void, in the heart was worse.
One of the great blessings I was bestowed with in this life is the fact that I happened to be a classmate of hers. True to the literal meaning of her name, she always supported anything good. Charity begins at home. So, she opened up her home to all of us. Many of our classmates who would chew Qaad frequented her place. She never declined their arrivals - which often was unnoticed. Sometimes, they would come while she is sleeping. She never showed any sign of being fed up. These students were not only chewing Qaad, but also studying together as a group. She became raison d'etre of the study group. Soon, there were many study groups all over the place. I benefited these study groups tremendously as I got the chance to check my understanding and views with as many classmates as possible, thanks to Umalkhayr.
If you understood that her home was only open to Qaad chewers, well, you could say that it is not the case but only the weakness of the writer, or the written word which allows you to tell one thing at a time. None chewers, like Khadar Caynaashe, Abdirahman Osman, Mohamed Suleimanand myself paid frequent trips to that wonderful home - sometimes more than the trips chewers would make. For them, once seated for the afternoon, they remained seated. For us, we continued to roam.
Another hallmark of hers was her way of putting people at ease. She was the kind of person who did not talk more nor less and at the same time make you feel fully entertained. Regardless of what she is going through, she was someone whose smile does not wear out; nor her witty remarks and her simple way of life. She radiated life through her smile and confident composure.
Of all virtues of hers, none stood in parallel with her ability to weave relationships and weed out any problems among the students she so heartily loved. This led to some of us to nickname her place as "Maqaamkii" just to demonstrate the strength of our loyalty to her and what she stood for. It is beyond my ability to explain her ability to stand up for the truth and without alienating the person it may hurt. While there were many who would spread hatred among fellow men and women, she would spread love and unity. Whereas others would see enemy, she would see a friend to be won. Whereas others would see unreconcilable problems, she would just see an opportunity to take the next big step to forge a lasting trust. She never gave up hoping and expecting people are intrinsically good even when they do something stupid or wrong from time to time. Whenever I look back I do not know how I would have sustained strains of tertiary education without a friend like Umalkhayr, who always reminded me to cheer at my problems and fatigues, to push me to hope better for hope is a contagious matter, and to just let it go and cry if I have to, knowing someone just cares.
Finally, while she may not have left us with a scientific paper, or business accomplishment, she has left us with a great contribution - she showed us what it means to be humane. She silently, wrote her epitaph, not on any physical structure, but on the tomb she painstakingly built on our heart, "humane" - all in small letters for a reason. And no paper, or other material accomplishment would outsmart those of us who turn our attention back to humanity. And for this, I share the seat of agony and mourners with all the great friends and former classmates. People like Said Yasin (a.ka. Said Badhan), Mohamed Adam (a.k.a. D Adam), Haybe, Yahye, Abdirahman Ahmed (a.k.a. David), Khadar Caynanshe, Yurub Abdirahman, Nouh Suleiman, Hassan Omar A. (Obosanjo) and the many more whose names I am silently murmuring...
Indeed, a heroine mother amongst us has departed this world, leaving us sobbing: To Allah we belong, and to Him we return.
One of the great blessings I was bestowed with in this life is the fact that I happened to be a classmate of hers. True to the literal meaning of her name, she always supported anything good. Charity begins at home. So, she opened up her home to all of us. Many of our classmates who would chew Qaad frequented her place. She never declined their arrivals - which often was unnoticed. Sometimes, they would come while she is sleeping. She never showed any sign of being fed up. These students were not only chewing Qaad, but also studying together as a group. She became raison d'etre of the study group. Soon, there were many study groups all over the place. I benefited these study groups tremendously as I got the chance to check my understanding and views with as many classmates as possible, thanks to Umalkhayr.
If you understood that her home was only open to Qaad chewers, well, you could say that it is not the case but only the weakness of the writer, or the written word which allows you to tell one thing at a time. None chewers, like Khadar Caynaashe, Abdirahman Osman, Mohamed Suleimanand myself paid frequent trips to that wonderful home - sometimes more than the trips chewers would make. For them, once seated for the afternoon, they remained seated. For us, we continued to roam.
Another hallmark of hers was her way of putting people at ease. She was the kind of person who did not talk more nor less and at the same time make you feel fully entertained. Regardless of what she is going through, she was someone whose smile does not wear out; nor her witty remarks and her simple way of life. She radiated life through her smile and confident composure.
Of all virtues of hers, none stood in parallel with her ability to weave relationships and weed out any problems among the students she so heartily loved. This led to some of us to nickname her place as "Maqaamkii" just to demonstrate the strength of our loyalty to her and what she stood for. It is beyond my ability to explain her ability to stand up for the truth and without alienating the person it may hurt. While there were many who would spread hatred among fellow men and women, she would spread love and unity. Whereas others would see enemy, she would see a friend to be won. Whereas others would see unreconcilable problems, she would just see an opportunity to take the next big step to forge a lasting trust. She never gave up hoping and expecting people are intrinsically good even when they do something stupid or wrong from time to time. Whenever I look back I do not know how I would have sustained strains of tertiary education without a friend like Umalkhayr, who always reminded me to cheer at my problems and fatigues, to push me to hope better for hope is a contagious matter, and to just let it go and cry if I have to, knowing someone just cares.
Finally, while she may not have left us with a scientific paper, or business accomplishment, she has left us with a great contribution - she showed us what it means to be humane. She silently, wrote her epitaph, not on any physical structure, but on the tomb she painstakingly built on our heart, "humane" - all in small letters for a reason. And no paper, or other material accomplishment would outsmart those of us who turn our attention back to humanity. And for this, I share the seat of agony and mourners with all the great friends and former classmates. People like Said Yasin (a.ka. Said Badhan), Mohamed Adam (a.k.a. D Adam), Haybe, Yahye, Abdirahman Ahmed (a.k.a. David), Khadar Caynanshe, Yurub Abdirahman, Nouh Suleiman, Hassan Omar A. (Obosanjo) and the many more whose names I am silently murmuring...
Indeed, a heroine mother amongst us has departed this world, leaving us sobbing: To Allah we belong, and to Him we return.
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