Continued:

This afternoon I spoke with dear Leila and shared the good news with her. This courageous and hardworking compatriot asked me to convey her and her dear family’s gratitude to you. She also wrote the few unadorned lines below after our telephone conversation and sent them to me so that I could share them with you:

“Hello and many greetings. I am Leila, a girl from the lineage of hope, love, and strength.
It is such a beautiful feeling to have people who remember you and love you simply because of your dreams. Dear Dr Areta and all of you dear people gave me this beautiful feeling wholeheartedly, and I felt it with my whole being.
I truly do not know with what words I can express my gratitude. You helped meet part of the needs of my life and my family’s life, and after a long time you brought smiles and happiness back into our home.
Thank you for being there. Pray that my goals and dreams become reality.
I love you and kiss the hands of each and every one of you. I want to live life, and I deeply miss seeing my own face and the faces of my family. I would love soon to see the flowers, the forest, the sky, and God’s painting again. I hope my brother Sajjad does not reach the stage of blindness.
As I write these words, tears of joy have gathered in my eyes. I love you and entrust you to God.”

Many friends also wrote messages and letters full of love and hope for Leila. Over the next few days I will gather them and send them to her.

Other generous friends—including one of my old friends from my teenage years—have asked me to put them directly in touch with dear Leila for further assistance in the future. I will provide their details for future coordination, subject to Leila’s own decision.

Two generous friends who are ophthalmologists have also offered to assist Leila with her and her family’s medical needs.

All of this happened in less than a week, and I am still overflowing with happiness at everything that has happened and at my friendship with you. I know that if, in the remaining years of my life, I were to make such a wish every year—that the gift of my life should be your generosity and kindness extended to one of our compatriots—it might be asking too much of my friends’ affection. But whether little or much, whatever it may be, I have decided that in the years ahead, for as long as I am alive, I will do this.

Many people in our country, Iran, need help. Among them are people with a great dream, a bright mind, and a valuable but unrealised capacity. Sometimes they may not even be destitute but may need help to progress; sometimes there may be a project or an idea capable of making the world a better place in which to live. I want, together with you, to celebrate the passing of the years by helping such possibilities. So, if life allows, at forty-five we will dream together again.

I love you,
Aydin Areta