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The faster you bury your dead, the faster
the mercy will come
21.4.2006
By David Reynolds
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A ‘Terrible Shock’
City’s Kurdish Community Gathers To Mourn Victim Of
I-81 Wreck
In keeping with Islamic tradition, family and
friends rushed to bury a mother of four a day after
she died in a crash on Interstate 81.
Nabat Muhamad Abdullah, 33, died after she collided
with a tractor-trailer around noon on Wednesday,
according to state police.
On Thursday, hundreds of friends from several states
gathered at the Islamic Center of the Shenandoah
Valley for funeral services.
"The faster you bury your dead, the faster the mercy
will come down on them," said Haitham Shtaieh,
Abdullah’s work supervisor at Bridgewater College.
Members of Harrisonburg’s Kurdish community
described Abdullah as a devoted mother and friend.
"It was the last thing in all of our minds that
something like this would happen to her," Banan
Bagzada said Thursday morning. "It’s a really,
really big, terrible shock for all of us."
The Crash
Police are still investigating the wreck that
happened on Interstate 81 around noon on Wednesday,
said Trooper J.D. Boyer of the Virginia State
Police.
The cause of the wreck is still unknown, Boyer said,
and the medical examiner is also investigating the
death.
According to Boyer’s preliminary investigation,
Abdullah lost control of her 1995 Dodge Caravan
while traveling north on I-81 just south of
Harrisonburg.
"All we know is she crossed the center median and
was struck head-on by a tractor-trailer," Boyer
said.
Southbound lanes were closed for 30 minutes as
rescue workers airlifted Abdullah to the University
of Virginia Medical Center, he said.
Boyer said he thought Abdullah died just after
arriving at the hospital, but was not certain. The
truck driver was treated and released from
Rockingham Memorial Hospital.
A Friend And Co-Worker
Friends said Abdullah and her husband, Kareem
Rasheed moved to Harrisonburg in 1997, soon after
leaving Kurdistan.
Kurdistan is an autonomous region that includes
portions of northern Iraq, southern Turkey and
northeastern Syria.
Rasheed and Abdullah had two boys, Bahroz, 15, and
Delman, 7, and two girls, Basoz, 12, and Eiman, 8.
Outside the service, Basoz said her mother often
came to visit her at Thomas Harrison Middle School.
"She was really nice and always supported us," she
said.
Mohammed Askary, who ministers at the mosque, said
many in the Kurdish community also considered
Abdullah family.
They are starting new lives in the United States,
far from the culture they know, Askary said, so
friends who share the same heritage become very
close.
"I’m far from my family in Kurdistan; this was my
family," said Derakhshan Arif, who worked with
Abdullah in the dining services department at
Bridgewater College.
Through tears, Zhian Merawly remembered visiting
Abdullah almost every day, cooking together and
caring for each other’s children.
"She’s my best friend, she’s my sister," she said.
An Ongoing Service
Friends came to the service from Washington, D.C.,
Pennsylvania, Maryland and New Jersey.
Other friends have stayed with Abdullah’s husband
and children almost constantly since the wreck, said
Muhamed Kareem, a family friend at the mosque.
"When you are alone, you think more, and you become
mad," Kareem said. "So we stay here to support him."
Askary, who also teaches at James Madison
University, said Abdullah is the first in the
Kurdish community to be buried in Harrisonburg.
While it’s unfortunate that it’s someone so young,
Askary said the burial has special meaning for those
in Harrisonburg’s Kurdish community.
"They’ve created a new life here together," Askary
said. "That’s why they are so affected by this
death."
As for Abdullah, he said she’s continuing her
journey in a better place.
But Thursday evening, friends remembered how she
lived here.
"She was a beautiful person," Arif said. "She was
loved by all of us."
Dnr Online.com
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