Zakaria Mohammed Suleiman

I'm writing this memorial as I sit for the last time in a lawn chair across from my dad's chair, sipping coffee the way we usually did in his garden when we hung out together. The photos posted are the view I normally had of him when visiting together. He loved those roses and caring for his garden. It is probably safe to say it was one of his most loved hobbies in his later life. His garden was a place where many of his friends gathered to visit him and was well known for being one of the most beautiful places in the mobile home park he lived at. He loved his cats as much as I love my Bengals. Before coming to the USA, dad survived the six day war in Jordan despite being shot in the stomach as a child. To my knowledge, dad left Jordan right at 18 years old because he refused to be part of this fighting of the two sides. Later in life, he had his life saved by a Jewish surgeon that did his triple bypass surgery on his heart. His words about Jewish people changed for the better after this event and he taught me an important lesson of "there are only bad people in this world, not bad races." Dad was also the bravest man I had ever known. He always encouraged me growing up to always fight for the right things in the world. He did many heroic acts over his lifetime but his most recent and memorable one was attempting to defend those two girls in the trimet max stabbings even though he was a disabled man. Nothing ever stopped him from doing the right thing even if it was scary. Dad was a great person that taught valuable life lessons to many. He was not only my father but my best friend in life. I'm still not sure how I'm gonna do this without him 😢 May you Rest In Peace dad.

--Love,

Sheena Suleiman