EgyptFeatures/Interviews

85-year-old woman still works hard, carries sacks on her shoulder

Her wrinkles, her chapped hands and her elusive eyes tell of the hardship that 85-year-old Soad Ragab has endured.
 
She sits silents in her shop in Nasr City, waiting for a customer to come and buy a kilo of gypsum or a sack of cement to earn her living for the day.
 
“I’ve been carrying bricks, cement and gypsum since I was 12 without a single day off,” she says. 
 
Her husband and five children have all passed away, but she has 21 grandchildren that she says only come to see her when they need money.
 
There are no pictures on the walls of her home, as if she is void of memories. “I only keep the picture of my youngest son who died at the age of 34 of an electric shock while he was working,” she says.
 
“I am told that I am 85 years old,” she said. “I would like to issue an ID card so that I can travel easily.”
 
 
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
 

Back to top button