A View From Ivry!

Happy LuvDay!!!!

Happy 25th Birthday to my beautiful niece Nikole!!!

Happy Chinese New Year - Year of the Tiger….Grrrrrr!!!!

And a Happy Belated 21st Birthday to my nephew Marc (here with his sister Jaimee)!!!

The US Consulate in Madrid got my friend and her children on a flight out to the States today.  Thanks to everyone for your kindness in helping and your good thoughts for her and her children.

My friend made it safely to Madrid and is at the US consulate now, hoping they will cover the cost of tickets to get to NY.

Thanks for the positive messages — I’m collecting money (via paypal — the acct is onlinedma@gmail.com ) and sending whatever I collect to her via Western Union, if anyone wishes to contribute and help her cover food and shelter for her and the kids until they get to the US. We still haven’t found anyone who could take her in, so she’s staying at a hotel and having to cover meals without a kitchen…

Thanks again!

  A friend from the States is “on the run” from her husband — currently she’s heading to Madrid from Morocco (where they live), planning to make it to NYC if all goes well — with her four children. Why? Because, after 15 years of marriage and, recently, a variety of “problems” (including emotional and physical abuse), her husband sent her to the US for a short vacation, and when she returned, he had taken another wife and expected her to live in the same house! This was - ahem! - not acceptable for her.

My friend is a devout Muslim, an African-American convert … her husband, however, seems to be following some extreme (and frankly, inhumane) philosophy (we will not call it Islam, though he would) that makes him think he can do whatever he wants regardless of her feelings. Without getting into too much of a religious discussion, billions of Muslims would disagree with his “interpretation” — ‘nuf said.

Anyway, for various reasons she’s had to spirit away with her kids in the night, with just enough money to get her to Madrid in the hope that the US embassy will cover the plane tickets to send her to NY, where she has a domestic violence shelter ready to take her in and she plans to file for a divorce, custody and a restraining order….

I am waiting for news from her (last I heard she was over the Spanish border in Septa still on “Moroccan” soil but had not yet crossed the sea to mainland Spain) but when I get it, if you might know anyone in or around Madrid that could offer a meal, transport, lodging or other support for a day or so while she deals with the embassy and gets gone, please contact me.

I also have an account number if anyone else would be interested in helping out financially — the account is with TD Bank in NY, and I can send you the details upon request.

Thanking you in advance.
Pat
zraidi@gmail.com

Top Row - balcony flowers, MJ celebration in Paris, Notre Dame in background, Samir as a human Xmas tree

2nd Row - Snow Dec. 09, Boys in Paris, Last Year’s holiday card, Boys

3rd Row - Nezar with his new cousin Lina, Xmas ornament, Hubby mowing, Me (on right) with sister and brother

Last Row - Hubby and boys, Me with our new niece Lina, Snow Jan. 09, Samir