Words that Never Leave You: “There is no such thing as imagined pain. If you feel the pain, it is real.”
Part Forty-Nine in an ongoing series from Hollie's book "Words That Never Leave You: Fifty Pearls of Wisdom and Reflection from Survivors Across the World."
Mohammad – a Yemeni who had just lost his home and children to an erroneous bomb blast while in the fields working – moaned into the sultry summer sky, mumbling nonsensically to himself in-between gasps for air. Mohammad walked in circles, almost tearing out chunks of hair from his head in anguish, lamenting almost incoherently that his feet were on fire.
His brother cocked his head toward the local medic in our team in confusion. Before he could ask, the medic took the agonized brother by the hand.
“There is no such thing as imagined pain,” the medic said to him, but to all of us helplessly watching on. “If you feel the pain, it is real.”
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