I can’t believe that the beautiful Helena Ataya, our family’s Lebanese “Sitty” of West Auckland is about to turn 100 soon.
She is the great oak of Lebanon once planted in West Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand. Best friends with Elizabeth Cruickshank my war-widowed great grandmother and adored by my namesake Sam Sasser, a revolutionary footballer of the USA who lived on Marshall Islands archipelagos with his wife Florence and his two children Renee and Terrence. Sam loved Helena and her late husband George Ataya – a man full of laughter and joy – known as our ‘Jitty’ who had spent time in Egypt before arriving to New Zealand years ago.
Quite the dazzling light, Helena Ataya is loved be everyone. She is also much loved by the Smith and the Jones families as well, of Oak Ridge days.
She’s amazing and I love her! Go “Sitty!” Much love on your very special upcoming day.
Six generations of our family would have known her and her beautiful Kiwi-Lebanese family on her birthday. Sitty’s smile and sense of humor has always been sweetness and light. She’s always been the coolest!
Psalm 1 - “They are like trees that grow beside a river, that bear fruit at the right time, and whose leaves do not dry up. They succeed in everything they do.”
Thanks Cherry and Aunty Janice for the message.
~Posted by Horiwood.Com, Hollywood California USA. 2.24.11~