On a hot summer day in 1952 in the Libaa South East Saida village, a four-year-old girl would leave home barefoot, as she always was, to visit with her grandmother. Walking through the woods and orchards for two hours to the next village, she would depend on the water springs for reference.

She never got to high school. By ninth grade, she was out. Effectively, her education was disrupted from the sixth grade due to war and other factors. She remembers that she quit schooling when she started learning English. In Lebanon, it’s usually by sixth grade.

Starbucks was empty. We took one out of the only three tables available due to social distancing. A meter apart across from a coffee table, masks on/off, we visited for a good hour and a half.

She’s a person of extremes. She did not like school and had a problem with figures of authority, be it work-related, political, or religious. She can’t be an employee. She enjoyed cheating at school for the fun of it — copied from students and allowed students to copy from her. An outlaw.

Two people serve one meaningful purpose. Denise, Muriel, and their Zyara [visit in Arabic]. They get invited to other people’s lives and get entrusted with their stories to document and share. Their story-telling invites hope and waken inspiration.