[LINK] "The Rajab family is home, at last"

[rfmcdonald]

Michael Friscolanti of MacLean's has a great article looking at one Syrian family, once consigned to a shack in Lebanon now settled in the greater Toronto area.

Even after he boarded the plane in Lebanon, his seatbelt buckled, Mostafa Rajab didn’t quite believe what was happening. He was certain someone was going to barge down the aisle and order him to get off, insisting there’d been a big mistake. Only when the jet made a stopover in Portugal did reality start to sink in: his family—six Syrian refugees among so many millions—were on their way to Canada. “I realized then,” Mostafa grins, “that nobody could send us back.”

Today, a few weeks after that life-changing flight, the 46-year-old father of four is sitting on a maroon couch in his new apartment: a spacious, three-bedroom unit in Toronto’s east end. His wife, Souheila, is on the cushion beside him, directly underneath a poster of a Canadian flag. “Welcome Rajab family!” it reads (in Arabic and English.) “When we reached here, we found the best people ever,” Souheila says, speaking through an interpreter. “I’ve never seen more kind people in my life.”

“Even the pizza delivery man!” her husband interjects. “He knew we were Syrians so he gave us a bottle of Coke for free.”

Their eldest son, Mohammed, smiles at the anecdote, one of countless acts of kindness heaped on the Rajabs since they arrived in early January. “Even if we become 200 or 300 years old, we will never forget this story of what people have done for us,” says the 19-year-old, wearing jeans and a grey T-shirt.

“This story is going to live on,” his father adds. “It’s going to be told from one generation to another.”