She kept speaking about her son in the present tense. He is a happy child. He was so excited about school when he first starting going, and now simply loves to prepare his uniform each day.
Her 8-year old son, Zakaria Hamid Samoni, was dead. He had been killed when a rocket fired from an Israeli military helicopter fell near where Zakaria was playing.
But Rida Samoni seemed oddly at ease, smiling even, as she spoke about him. Her other children milled about the room, hiding behind her, staring at me and laughing.
Perhaps it was not quite time to let Zakaria go.