A Tribute to Janan Said

Posted By Rana Said                                  

There are so many amazing women in the world!

While this tribute is for one person, I've also included others, because in our world and within our circle of friends and family, we seem to have an over-indexed rate of amazing women - all of them amazing for different reasons...

One family member has already received a tribute by Nadia Wehbe Norman - she is our late aunt Maliha.

When I think of all these amazing women in my life I think of my cousins Nadia and Lara who are dynamic, intelligent, bright, great mothers, with personalities that can work anything from a business dinner to a young group of teens with equal success. They are good friends packaged as cousins.

A Cool Mom & Family

I think of my own mum who is an amazing woman in her way having been brought up in Nazareth in a relatively closed community, lost her dad when she was two years old, and yet went on to become an inspiring mother to us; she was the only woman we knew in our society who worked and had a career when we were growing up -- we thought that was tres cool (she always came home with interesting work stories).

She brought us up thinking we could achieve whatever we wanted, and is seen as very biased towards her daughters!

I also think of my niece Dana who qualifies for the title too - she combines wit, intelligence, intellect, style, AND a wicked sense of humour -- all packaged in an amazing personality. Yes, she's real.

My other niece, Talal, is younger, and is also showing signs of 'amazingness'.

I think of my best friend Sahar Al Huneidi, who takes the word 'amazing' to new levels. Sahar is a dynamic, strong source of inspiration and energy to many people. And I think of my many friends in Dubai (especially Nathalie, Abeer Marian, Rama, Bariya and many many others - far too many to mention!), who are all case studies in amazingness.

But today's tribute is for my sister Janan.

Thank you God, for Janan

Janan did not conquer Mt. Everest, she did not go bungee jumping, she did not take time out from her life to work in developing countries, she did not write a dissertation and she hasn't run for any political office that I'm aware of.

But she has done so much more in our opinion. She is a balanced, sensible, intelligent woman. She has raised four amazing children. She is a fantastic wife, mother, sister and friend.

She has a calm, mild and fun nature, which you gradually see revealed the more you know her. She surprises you with new depths every time you see more of her -- she is an avid reader and has an amazing knack for keeping up with latest news.

She has a unique calm way of accessing situations and issues that would have made her an excellent consultant, analyst, economist or psychotherapist. In fact she is the person that most of our family and friends turn to for straight-unbiased-no-nonsense advice.

She’s attractive, and has a young fun-loving and positive attitude (she's definitely a 'glass half full' kind of gal!).

I thank God that Janan is my sister, and I wish her happiness always.