Michel H. Khoury

In the year 1932, Michel Hanna Khoury was born in Jerusalem, the beloved holy land. He was the eldest son of 13 children.

Circumstances were such that he took on the responsibility of helping his father provide for the whole family at the age of 13 years old.

At age 25, Michel got married to his dream girl Siham Copti, whom he was chasing after for a few years and went to every extreme to make sure that she does not get married to someone else.

In 1957, on July 13, he married Siham in Kuwait, where she lived at the time with her parents. Siham would become the woman who would stand by his side through all of life’s challenges for 58 romantic years.

One year later Doris was born in Kuwait.

A few months after her birth, Michel's work took him to Tripoli Libya, where 3 years after that, they had Johnny.

Michel had the highest position within the Albert Abela International Group, a company providing catering and life support services in oil fields and military bases.

As the General Manager, he was responsible for taking care of the American Air-Force base and overseeing the majority of their needs, with more than 4,500 employees under his care.

In the year 1969, Michel moved to Lebanon where Roger was born 4 years later in 1973. There he took it upon himself to open a successful manufacturing business, exporting products to the Arabian gulf in the Middle East.

In December of 1975 after the civil war started in Lebanon, and as the war escalated, Michel was forced to flee from his home in Lebanon and move to Kuwait.

In 1977, Doris came to California to attend to college. Eventually Michel moved the family to Los Angeles California where his sister Cossette and Husband Dr. Issa Shamonki lived. During this time, Johnny was still living in England in a boarding school.

Unfortunately, Michel had to leave everything behind in Lebanon which was lost during the war. A few years later, Johnny joined the family in California after finishing his education in England and a short time in Canada.

Michel was such a loving, committed and generous man who loved to travel and enjoyed life to the max. He enjoyed surprising his family with vacation trips and planned well for everything.

He had a very warm heart filled with so much love which he poured among his family and friends. He did whatever it took to take care of everyone who was dear to him.

There were moments in his life where he even risked his own wellbeing and safety to help others who were threatened by war and racial as well as religious discrimination. This reflected his Christian love and sacrifice for not only his family but his neighbor as well, which speaks volumes about his own righteous character as a human being created in the image and likeness of God.

Almost 4 years ago, unfortunately Michel was pressured into taking cholesterol medication he didn't need, simply because of his age, as a preventative according to his cardiologist.

That was when his health started taking a backward step from the side effects of that medication, causing him to lose most of his muscle strength which became damaged.

Compounded by his lack of exercise and resistance to performing any regular physical activity, he quickly developed osteoporosis which became more and more severe over this time.

This ultimately put him at high risk for aspiration which can lead to pneumonia. Pneumonia was in fact the final cause of his passing.

However, God’s loving mercy was on him and his family during the final moments of his life, as he did not suffer, but fell asleep peacefully.

The good Lord granted him the ability to have communion a day before through a timely and loving visit from Fr. George Ajalat. Furthermore, Michel was also able to see all of his children, grandchildren, his sister and her family as well as some of his very near loved ones whom he considered family during his last day with us.

It’s important to note that Michel’s sense of humor was so vivid , that it was experienced by everyone around him until the last day of his life.

There were so many funny incidents in Michel's life, but one stands out in his family's mind from a fairly recent physical therapy visit.

One day when Michel was at the chiropractor, he was sitting on an exercise machine and was supposed to stretch down trying to touch his socks with his fingers. After a lot of effort he finally touched one sock.

The doctor told him: "So Michel, now you know what to do next time, right?

Michel replied: "Yes, of course I know, next time I will wear LONGER socks."

God bless Michel's soul and may he rest in peace and his memory be eternal.