And there are moments that no grief can do justice to the level of sadness and sorrows.
Last Saturday our day was shattered with news that one cannot comprehend and accept. It was short, our friend’s young daughter Jasmine Jahanshahi was killed in a fire in Paris.
The story was devastating, especially if you knew that Yassi’s family was already struggling with difficulties of a different sort. Yassi, a junior at University of California, Berkeley, hesitated to join the student exchange program in France last Fall, saying that she rather stay few more months with her family. Now she is no longer with us, while her family is arranging a celebration of life for her.
Words are short in describing this tragedy, we are extremely sad and in disbelief, may she rest in peace… As the Daily Mail reports: "The blaze in Menilmontant, a densely populated area of the 20th arrondissement in Paris, is the latest in a long list which have blighted the French capital’s public safety record.
Scores of mainly immigrants have died in similar circumstances over the past decade, with the authorities apparently unable to do anything about the scandal."
I, like many others, wish to leave before my child. But Yassi’s parents are teaching us another angle of resilience and compassion. Because their daughter is in fact according to the authorities in Paris, a victim of lack of compliance with fire codes, they want to prevent this tragedy from happening to other young fellows in this country.
They have started a campaign to install fire-stairs and smoke detectors in low income housings in the US. If you are interested in contributing to this cause, please contact me directly, so that I can connect you to the family. see more & read more.