in memoriam, Mona Abulhassan

It was a shock this evening to learn that our former AUC Philosophy Major Mona Abulhassan has lost her battle with leukemia. A year ago at this time there was a drive to find a match for a marrow transplant. They hadn’t found a match the last time I was in email contact with Mona, but she was still optimistic. Then the last email I sent went unanswered, though I didn’t think much of it, since the talk among her Facebook friends still seemed cheerful and optimistic.

Mona was in her late twenties. I remember her as sophisticated and global in outlook, but primarily as an unusually strong personality. She had as much backbone and tenacity as anyone I’ve ever seen at undergraduate age.

We’d last met in person a couple of years ago at a Zamalek cafe. She needed some references for graduate school. I was happy to write them, and in fact the two applications were both successful. Due to her medical circumstances she was allowed to defer admission for a year, but then her health apparently never recovered sufficiently for admission to be possible.

Farewell to Mona. Even with a couple of years to prepare for the news, this is not easy to believe.