MEET LILIANE

My name is Liliane and I am 74 years old. My husband was the owner of a store, but we lost all our money when he got ill, and then he passed away. This was five years ago. Since then, I have been living on my own. I have no children and no relatives. My neighbor, who used to be my best friend, passed away a few years ago. I used to work as a seamstress and make enough money to meet my needs. But since I broke my wrist and had surgeries for both of my knees, I have not been able to work at all, and I am left with no source of income whatsoever, at a difficult time when I am struggling with cancer.

This apartment is where my husband and I lived most of our life, but I have not paid for rent since my neighbor who used to collect it passed away. I cannot afford it anymore and I am afraid the owner will evict me. I am surprised he hasn’t so far. I even struggle to pay for the other things, like electricity. I have just enough to pay for the electricity provided by the government, and I stopped being able to pay for a private generator and the TV cable a long time ago. Because of that, I have to live with electricity cuts several hours every day.

When the Beirut explosion happened, I was lying down on my couch. All my windows’ glass shattered, and I honestly thought I was going to die. I hurried downstairs because no one lives in this building but me. There were many people in shock in the street, and no one knew what was going on! How could we have imagined what just happened?

A month passed before my windows got fixed. I could never have afforded to repair them myself. Thankfully, my eye surgeon told me about the church and advised me to reach out to them for help. When I found them, they warmly received me and have been supporting me ever since. First, they rehabilitated my home by replacing the windows, fixing my kitchen and bathroom, and insulating the roof that was badly leaking since the explosion. For the past four months, the church has also been sending me three cooked meals a week, and they gave me several food vouchers.

Without their help, I wouldn’t have anything to eat. Look at my fridge, it is completely empty! Everything has become so expensive, it doesn’t even make sense. The prices are changing every day. I lived through the Lebanese civil war and we didn’t lack food for a single day back then. I have no idea what will happen to all the poor people of this country.

Despite it all, nothing has been able to shake my faith so far. I rely on the Lord for everything because He is all that I have. I have no one but God and the church to help me.