In 1928 author and historian Will Durant, who would later author the multi volume series “The Story of Civilization,” covered the Democratic Party National Convention for the New York World. He wrote of Franklin Delano Roosevelt who was still recovering from the attack of polio that he had previously suffered but managed to make a rousing speech on behalf of the eventual Democratic presidential nominee, New York Governor Al Smith, and insightfully described the future president as “A figure tall and proud even in suffering; a face of classic profile, pale with years of struggle against paralysis …. A man softened and cleansed and illumined with pain.” More recently, a historian has said that the aristocratic FDR’s bout with polio gave him “compassion forthose who had been crippled by circumstance.” And a recent sojourn in the upscale and trendy Oklahoma City restaurant First Bite Café that included a Muslim holiday luncheon with the owner Ghassan Dabbour, who has endured personal tragedy and is recovering from a encounter with a deadly disease, reveals a somewhat similar figure whose visage bears the signs of great pain but also a resolution to go forward without self pity or bitterness. Dabbour’s continued path forward has been strengthened by his current wife- his first wife past away several years ago-FouziaDayrek, who is a cheerful native of Morocco and fluent in French, English, and Arabic, and his daughter Noalle Attiyeh and the two grandchildren that she has borne. They, along with Noalle’s husband, Jasim Attiyeh, and his father and mother, Mark and Rebecca Attiyeh, were also at the luncheon. The senior Attiyehs who have been married for more than four decades, exude the contentment and personal satisfaction that is often found in those who are in such happy unions. The two grandchildren were present as was Nasser Attiyeh, one of the Attiyeh’s other sons. The two grandfather’s smiled with pride as their grandchildren scampered around the restaurant and periodically offered them packets of sugar from other tables that they graciously accepted. The staffers at the eatery as well as some of the other patrons displayed an affection for the children that they reciprocated in the way that only small children can. The two men are said to shower those children with toys and other presents and a recent visitor to the Dabbour residence in north Oklahoma City reported that the toys that were in place there reminded him of a visit to the famed FAO Schwartz toy store in New York City during the holiday season. The senior Attiyeh, who was formerlya restaretuer and owned a profitable chain of IHOP restaurants, now owns a farm where he raises a variety of animals and also makes hummus, that Middle Eastern concoction that is increasingly popular in the Oklahoma City, and when a patron at an adjoining table confessed to an inordinate fondness for it, he generously agreed to supply him with a quantity of it.
Against the Grain 