“Some dreams are simple but just impossible to realise”, that was the last phrase Kyrillos Fadel Halim, 23, wrote on his Facebook page on Friday 24 October. Halim lost his life that day in the terrorist car bombing that took place near Arish in north Sinai, in which 33 Egyptian soldiers died and 25 were injured.
Kyrollos graduated from university last year with a degree in English Literature. He was on compulsory military duty and had only one more month to go to finish his service. His friend George Rizq says that he was looking forward to getting a job and starting a career once he was done with military service.
Rizq fondly remembers Halim as vivid and full of life; he enjoyed the love and respect of all who knew him, especially his comrades-in-arms in Sinai. “Yet when he came home on leave, Kyrillos too often talked about death. He seemed to encounter it often in Sinai. He grieved for the death of one of his comrades who had lost his life to a terrorist operation there. He told us his comrade had asked to exchange places with him because he felt very unwell then. Kyrillos accepted, but his friend meet his death that day when a bomb fell where he had stood in place of Kyrillos.
“Kyrollos was a proud soldier, he said a soldier dies holding his gun,” Rizq recalls.
“Despite all the hazards, Kyrillos was unafraid. He was happy serving in the army, felt it was his patriotic duty, and felt confident that God was with him at all times. “
A funeral service was held for Kyrillos in his hometown of Zaqaziq in Sharqiya, east of the Nile Delta. Anba Timotheus, Bishop of Zaqaziq and Minyal-Qamh presided over the ceremony.
Rizq believes that Kyrillos is now in a better place. He repeats what Fadel Halim said of his son’s death: “Kyrillos in the hand of God.”
Watani International
27 October 2014