Local Couple Reunites After a Year of Separation Due to COVID-19

THE WOODLANDS, TX -- Nagwa Osmen and Iemaed Elrafie have been married for 34 years. They’re one another’s best friends and have two adult children together. In December of last year, Elrafie travelled to Kuwait on business. It wasn’t supposed to be a long venture, but then the global pandemic hit and Kuwait prohibited entry or exit from its country.

These bans were eventually lifted, but due to subsequent government shutdowns, Elrafie was unable to renew his travel visa, which he needed in order to return home. In total, Elrafie was stuck in Kuwait for nearly one year.

“We’ve never left each other for more than a month,” Osmen explained; “Never … this has been very heavy, I lost 45 pounds,” she said. Osmen has been in strict isolation since March due to her heart condition and lowered immune system. Her son, a nurse, and her daughter, a therapist, are both in regular contact with patients, which prohibits her from seeing them on a regular basis.

Her silver lining during this dark and overwhelmingly lonely time has been the special bonds she created with a few local woodland creatures. She started feeding a wild bunny in her backyard and the two are now so close that she's able to hand feed it. She has also walked to feed the ducks near her neighborhood every day. Her connection to these sweet animals is so immense, that when she stayed home for a week due to illness, one of the ducks trekked all the way to her front porch, where it stayed until she came outside. “They have become very close friends to me,” she commented.

Elrafie was finally able to introduce her husband to her new animal friends when he returned home last Friday, December 11, just in time for the holidays!

“I can’t believe that I'm going to see him today, to be honest with you. I don't know how I will react when I see him … It is overwhelming. I didn't sleep yesterday at all from the excitement,” Osmen exclaimed in anticipation. Seeing that her birthday is December 16, she beamingly said that his homecoming is her birthday present.

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