My mother and father…their friends would often come to our place. (They would) eat, and drink, and (drink) tea and coffee. (They were) like our family. And my mother and father (would say) “come, come, come everyone with us. Come and drink with us”. And our situation was really good, good, good. I mean, my father’s job was good, good. And they would come to us a lot. And my mother would cook such food. Mhasha, tbeet, yaprakh, kitchri…I don’t know what other food. Excellent. And her fish was…what fish they would make! And on the Passover holiday…we had an oven. An oven we would cook bread in. As in, on Passover here, like there is matza, my mother would make it in the oven. The dough…and put it in the oven. In the oven…what bread! Oh my G-d. But without…yeast. Because they didn’t use yeast. And she would knead the dough…in the oven. What bread would come out! Really something! The mhasha, yaprakh, and kitchri and salona and tbeet…that was our food. That’s the food of Iraq…there’s nothing. Here I make the food of Chinese (people) and Morocco, I make all the food here. I cooked. But my family in Iraq…that was the food. Only my family was Iraqi, there was no[…]. There was yaprakh and fish and tbeet and kitchri and salona. All the Jews would make that (food). My mother was a seamstress. Seamstress. My mother was also a seamstress. And people would come to us often and they loved us a lot. They really loved us. And we had a big house (in which) people would sit. And my father would go to synagogue, synagogue. Every day. When I was still young I would go with him. I liked listening to the Torah. Until I came here, I liked it. When I came here, we came to Jerusalem. Me, my siblings and everyone…I went in right away. They put me into third grade. And we learned Hebrew.

My name is Suad. I’m from Iraq. We were 7 children - 4 boys and 3 girls. My mother and father…and my aunt lived with us in the house, and my grandmother. We had a three story house. And in the middle - (it was) open. In the middle, open. On Sukkot, we made a sukka in the middle of the house. We had a good life. My father worked. My siblings…we were very good. After, they said “they’re coming to Israel”. They called my father, and he registered us to come to Israel. When our name came, they called my father and our name appeared, they took us to the Mesouda Shemtob synagogue. We were living there for three days in the synagogue until our named was called to come onto the plane. We went and took our things and we came to the plane. They took us…they took us to Cyprus at first. We didn’t come directly (to Israel). They took us to Cyprus and after in Cyprus they said to my father “your turn has come.”. We came onto the plane and came to Israel. 

After…four years later I had a daughter. And after seven years I had another child. The girl…also, thank Gd. Both of them…three of my children have studied. The older also studied, and the girl studied and the younger one studied. The children grew up. My son studied computers. His friend said to him, “come let’s go…” they went to a restaurant. They registered to the restaurant and they got a job. He and his friend. His friend said to him, “bro, we studied computers…[…]”. They saw in a newspaper that a youth hostel was wanting workers. And my son understands English and understands Arabic and understands Hebrew. They went and worked. My daughter in law came from America for two weeks at the hostel. And he fell in love with her, and she fell in love with him. They said “we’re getting married.” She called her family and she said to them “I want to get married. I have a boy here and I want to marry him”. Yes, thirty five years in Miami still. And thank Gd they have two children. The older studied economics and produces […]…the youngest in America. And the second is a lawyer. His wife is an accountant. And thank Gd, thank gd, (they have) a good life. They come once a year or something to visit us.

And a year and a half ago, my husband died. My son came, he and his wife. They didn’t leave us, they brought food…my family is all in Jerusalem. I have nobody here in Tira. My siblings, Gd have mercy on them, died. Four. Four siblings died in three years. And that’s it, my sister and I stayed - us two. And all of them live…my whole family all live in Jerusalem. Only I got married here. And thank Gd, I’m happy. I have good children. My children are good, praise Gd. Thanks to Gd my children turned out okay. And that’s my life.

I worked. I studied, but…I worked…when I raised the children. I raised them very hard. (It was) hard. But praise Gd my children turned out incredible. The three of them. My daughter studied Israel studies in Beit Berl. My younger son too. Really, I see the youth today on drugs and such…bless Gd my children are good. And my grandchildren are good. (It’s) a gift from Gd.

My husband, a year ago, sat like this. He fell a few times and was at the hospital. A year and a half ago. I sat like this … they sat him up again and again. I’m alone. What can I do? I’m […]. The doctor came…hospital. They sent us to the hospital. He stayed there for ten days and he got infected with a bacteria…and died. Ten days and died. From that bacteria. and that’s it. I stayed alone.

I raised the children and thank Gd I have amazing children. Grandchildren? Wow. Wow. Thank Gd. 

That’s it, what else? My husband died and I’m alone here. And thank Gd we have our club I come to for half the day to spend our time. And I come home and it’s hard alone to be home alone. Hard, hard. What do I do? Watch tv, watch tv, watch tv until we go to sleep. Praise Gd.