Sabah's advice: Rejoice!
My relationship with the late great artist Sabah goes back to the day I was born. She was the first to visit my family in the hospital to congratulate me. Since that day, a relationship of love and friendship has grown between me and her. I inherited it from the love that linked Sabah to my father, Badih Serbey, and my mother.
My father was a young, novice journalist when Sabah began her artistic career. I remember that Sabah and my father told me the story of the birth of their friendship. My father was preparing to travel to Cairo to conduct press interviews with a number of stars. When Sabah’s mother learned of his travel, she sent a to Sabah. Since that day, a friendship was born that the entire artistic community has witnessed its distinction over many years. After my father’s death nearly twenty years ago, the diva was always with us on our happy occasions and our sad ones. She was a member of the family.
On her birthdays, she would ask us to sit next to her because she used to say: "The family of Badih Serbey are lifelong friends." From this friendship, I was able to get to know Sabah closely, to know her personality and to sense many of her concerns and sorrows. She had a kind heart and a generous soul. I even know that she used to financially help artists who had been going through hardships when she too was suffering from the same hardships.
Sabah's picture was on the cover of the first issue of Al-Mawed magazine published on 1-1-1953, and it was also on the cover of the issue published on Al-Mawed's fiftieth anniversary. She always adorned the covers and pages of Al-Mawed and dedicated pictures and news to us for exclusive viewing.
I conducted dozens of recorded interviews with Sabah, which I published in “Al-Mawed”, and she used to tell me about her worries and fears. She was afraid for her artistic status and image, and she wanted to financially secure her two children, Howayda and Dr. Sabah, to the point that she sold her house and lived in a hotel to secure Howayda’s inheritance, and she wrote the second house that she owned in her building in Hazmieh to her son, Dr. Sabah (and the house is now rented from Mrs. May Arida, the former president of the Baalbek Festivals).
Although she was a symbol of joy and optimism, Sabah was exposed to many sorrows in her life, from the cruelty of her father and the murder of her mother, to shocks and betrayals in her emotional life, to the distance of her son Sabah from her, until she was exposed to difficulties and crises in her professional life, from the decision to boycott her and prevent her from entering some countries, to other crises that she overcame all with a smile, with love, because Sabah's heart knew nothing but love, it never knew hatred and malice. She forgot the insults to keep carrying in her heart only the sweet memories...
In one of my interviews, I asked her about her will, and she said, “I want that on the day of my death and burial, no one be sad or cry. Rather, I want my songs to be broadcast throughout Lebanon and for people to dance the dabke. I have lived my life and I am satisfied, and I do not know why, until now, God has not written for me to depart. I want to go to where those I love and those who preceded me are.”
Sabah was not very attached to life, so much so that every time she read or heard the news of her death, she would say: Why do they begrudge me life? Why does my presence in life bother some people? God has written my lifespan and he is the one who determines the hour of departure. Sabah departed at the age of 87. And about those who doubt her age and say that she was ninety, I say: The artist Samir Sabry, as part of a documentary program, went to Bdadoun and reviewed the old church records and read that Sabah was baptized in 1927, meaning that Sabah departed at the age of 87, a few days after her birthday on November 10.
On her birthday, I called her hairdresser friend Joseph Gharib to check on her condition, congratulate her on her birthday, and set a day to meet her at the Brasilia Hotel, where she was staying in the Hazmieh area, where the hotel management had been hosting her for years. He told me that she was suffering from a chest infection, so we agreed to meet as soon as her health improved. Joseph traveled and she passed away...
Sabah is considered one of the pillars of Lebanese art and a great artist who was loved by all the Arab people. There was a state of love between her and Egypt and its audience. In light of these dark days we are going through, Sabah leaves us to bid farewell to the legend of joy and the lady of authentic art.
Sabah's advice to her fans was: Rejoice...rejoice...rejoice...