My sister Katie and I have memories of being at the kitchen table during dinner with Armand, and him gently nudging one of us and saying "would you please pas the habib?". This is what he called pepper. The name Habib in Arabic means "beloved". He certainly loved his pepper. One day while visiting him on Gordon Street, he showed me some photographs of him during the war, including the photo of him with his friend "Habib". This, of course, confused me. "But habib is pepper!" I wish now that I could remember if he told me a story connected with this man. Thankfully, we have this heartfelt letter from him, which speaks to what must have been an instant friendship between these two men during the invasion of North Africa. Kindness is a wonderful thing, and in this uncertain world it is good to have reminders that no matter what differences we have in race, religion, etc, we are all human beings trying to live our lives with kindness and grace. I hope you enjoy this letter as much as I did. I want to thank Sean's friend Carly, who kindly gave us a lovely translation. The parenthetical notes are hers. Click on "comments" above to add your thoughts and/or memories! January 19 1946 My dear Armand, (mon cher Armand/ it is a term of endearment, my very good friend…) It is with great joy that I received your wonderful/thoughtful letter yesterday morning dated December 20th. I never expected to hear from you (une telle missive??? I can’t read it) after such a long time since you were stationed in my house (chez moi could mean actually in his house or in his country..) in November the month of the American landing in North Africa. I too won’t stop thinking about it and I will think about it for a very longtime ( I assume in the letter to Habib, Armand talked about his experience of the war…). We were so happy to see you (Armand et the Americans) arrive and deliver us from German occupation/control, our happiness was immeasurable/we were overcome with joy, I’m sure you must have noticed (our joy). For the moment, my entire family and I are doing very well and we wish, with all our hearts that all is going well for you. However/only, I would like to, before closing this letter, tell you that my children are “Presque nus”= almost naked / so are without clothing/have almost nothing. If you could by any chance send me, which I would reimburse, some clothes for them, you would be doing me the most generous favor in the world. As you know, I have a 13-year-old son, a 9 year old (son) and a 6 year old (son) (I wanted to remind you..) so that you would have an idea of the range of clothing that you could send/ that need to be sent. Please do not forget to say hello to all of your comrades (the soldiers in your squad..) who were with you at my house. Here, it is still the same, there is still misery but we are managing/getting along in order to fight against (le sort! )death/our situation/the evil powers here! If in passing, you need/would like anything, dates or something else (fruit…maybe), do not forget to tell me/don’t hesitate to let me know. It would give me great pleasure to send these things to you. If by any chance you have collector stamps, would you mind sending them to me because I have a collection and I thank you in advance. Having nothing more to tell you/say, I leave you shaking your hand (it means with “my finest compliments” “all of my respect”) and always keeping you in my thoughts! You remain in my thoughts. Habib
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HABIB
5/5/2016 02:32:44 am
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