My memories with Sabah on the first anniversary of her passing
Last year, in this month, the late great artist Sabah celebrated her last birthday. Her health did not allow her to hold a party to which her friends and fans were invited, as her loyal friend, hairdresser Joseph Gharib, used to do every year. Fate willed that Sabah should pass away in the same month as her birthday.
In my many conversations with her, she used to say to me: I have had enough of life. It is time to leave, perhaps to a more beautiful world where I can meet all my loved ones.
The late artist Sabah was tired of life. Perhaps she was able to bear her pain and illness, but it was difficult for her to bear the waves of rumors that would blow on her from time to time about her death, her marriage, and even the news that talked about her long life. She used to say to me: “God gave me life, and whoever begrudges me life, I don’t know how to bother him or how I am a burden to him. Even for my age, they attack me. I am tired of the wars that are always waged against me.”
Sabah was perhaps the artist who was most exposed to rumors, because her kindness did not allow her to sue anyone who attacked her, so rumors abounded around her, but all the false news that was woven against her did not affect the public’s love for her.
People often blamed Sabah for many things she did, including selling her house to live in a hotel. I remember that during the period in which she divorced Fadi Lebanon, Sabah began to live in loneliness. During her marriage to Fadi, he occupied her life and the house was filled daily with Fadi’s friends. She used to say to me: “It is true that I often sat alone in the living room because I did not get along with them very well, but I felt that there were people in the house.”
But with Fadi leaving the house, Sabah remained alone with her maid, as her two sons, Dr. Sabah and Howayda, were living in the United States of America, and she had to face loneliness after she dispensed with the services of her maid after she appeared, which raised Sabah’s suspicions and fear, so she lived alone in her house in Hazmieh, and Joseph Gharib would pass by her every day after finishing his work in his salon to check on her and then leave, and her niece Clauda would also check on her, but she had to return to her family every day.
I remember one day, my husband, Dr. Ghassan Chehab, and Sabah were invited to a wedding at the Hariri family in Sidon. Joseph’s travel date coincided with the wedding date, so I told him to go and not to worry. My husband and I would take Sabah to Sidon with us in the car, then we would return her to her home in Hazmieh after the wedding.
When we arrived at her home in Hazmieh, my husband and I got out of the car and accompanied Sabah to the door of her house. We didn’t leave until she entered the house and we were assured that she had locked the door tightly. Then we left. As soon as we arrived at our house in Beirut, I shouted :“Sabouha!” , so my husband asked me what was wrong. I told him: Sabah was wearing a long dress when she attended the wedding, so how could she take it off when it only opened from the back and there was no one in the house to help her? Frankly speaking, I thought about calling her, but I was afraid that she might have fallen asleep and I would wake her up. I said to myself, if she had faced any difficulty, she would have told me. The next day, I called to check on her and told her about my concern about her taking off her dress. She told me, “Yes, I had faced difficulty, so I took the scissors and cut it, but I will send it to the designer who told me he could fix it.” But living alone in the house was no longer acceptable. Perhaps from that day on, Sabah made the decision to sell the house.
As the anniversary of her death approaches, I tell her we miss you and so do your fans who professed their love for you and crowned you for more than fifty years during which you were a symbol of beautiful art.