Tired but smiling after flights from Istanbul to Germany and, finally, to Vancouver, Mohammad Kurdi and his family woke up in his sister Tima Kurdi's Coquitlam home Tuesday morning to begin their first full day in Canada.
It was a moment the family of seven had waited three years for after fleeing their home in Syria in 2012. And while they expressed relief, gratitude and immense happiness, their arrival is overshadowed by those who were missing: brother Abdullah Kurdi, whose wife and two sons drowned in the Mediterranean Sea as they attempted to travel from Turkey to the Greek island of Kos in September.
The heartbreaking image of three-year-old Alan Kurdi's lifeless body, washed up on a Turkish beach, seized the world's attention and catapulted the Kurdi family into the spotlight as symbols of the millions of Syrian refugees risking their lives in a desperate attempt to reach safer shores. But to the Kurdi family he is simply Alan, a beloved child lost to the sea with his brother, Galip, and their mother, Rehan.
Sitting in her aunt's living room Heveen Kurdi, 16, the eldest of Mohammad and Ghouson's five children, was keen to test her English but, as with the rest of her family, relied on Tima to help translate.
"I am very happy to be here but at the same time I am really sad," she said. "We used to live beside each other and we would see them almost every day in Turkey. I miss them a lot, they are always on my mind."
Three years ago her parents travelled from Damascus to Kobani, thinking it would be far enough from the uprising. The conditions were much worse than they thought, however, and after seven months the family moved again, this time to Turkey.
Two years later they are finally in Canada, one family among thousands destined to arrive here by February. As they sit on sofas and dining room chairs lined up against the wall — Tima's Coquitlam home went from three residents to eight overnight — with the children watching cartoons, the scene is a surreal one after the family's harrowing journey.
"It was very dangerous to all the family in Syria," said Ghouson. "In 2012 there was lots of protesting, lots of bombs everywhere. When the kids went to school we were unsure if they would come back."
There was a day when Shergo, now 14, witnessed a classmate shot in the head; terrified, he ran to his father's hair salon for safety. Within a few weeks Shergo and another family member were nearby when a suicide bomber detonated himself, sending body parts flying in all directions.
"Witnessing that, how can you go on with life in a place like that?" Tima said.
In May of this year Mohammad, losing hope that his family would make it to Canada from Turkey, embarked on the same perilous journey by boat that his brother Abdullah would attempt, unsuccessfully, four months later. Mohammad made it to Greece, then Germany, settling in a refugee camp in the hopes it would better their chances to get to Canada.
He left behind his four children, with Shergo and Heveen working 12-hour days in factories to support the family, and his wife, then pregnant with their fifth child.
What stands out to him now is the quiet, he said. There are no bombs whistling overhead, shaking the house to its foundations.
In the days to come their life will be focused on more mundane tasks. It's been three years since the children attended school and Heveen and Shergo, as well as Ranim, nine, and Rezan, eight, will be working with an Arabic-speaking teaching assistant at Montgomery middle who will help ease them into the Canadian school system.
Ghouzon will be looking after six-month-old Sherwan and learning English while Mohammad will join Tima at Kurdi Hair Design in Port Coquitlam starting today (Wednesday).
Tima will continue efforts to bring Abdullah and two more sisters to Canada, and will continue advocating for Syrian refugees.
"This is not the end. I want people all over the world, each country, to open their borders and their heart to the suffering refugees."
• The Kurdi family is hosting a grand opening celebration at Kurdi Hair Design (105-3377 Coast Meridian Rd., PoCo) from 1 to 4 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 2. All are welcome to join the family, see the shop and enjoy some refreshments. For those who would like to donate to help the Kurdi family, visit their GoFundMe page.
spayne@tricitynews.com
@spayneTC