DR. MALIK AMARI STATUS: DECEASED. KEY NOTES: she wears a lot of his things; more specifically, a pair of his sunglasses and a braided leather bracelet. there are many things of his she keeps as mementos ( an bottle of his cologne she can't bring herself to smell, a few journals ) but most was given back to his family. gloria went through a lot of therapy to come to terms with and accept her grief. While Malik is someone she will carry forever, it does not keep her from giving all of herself to loving someone else. she does not bear his loss as a punishment for anyone who loves her. she will never make a single comparison or hold anyone to the standards set by malik. he is a component of her dedication to practice and a beautiful piece of her.
Gloria met Malik through her sister-in-law ( cat ), as he was part of her graduating class. his field of study was general surgery, but he changed his specialty to pediatric surgery, reflecting his character and the depths of a very caring, poetic heart. it was a slow start, but no less significant.
gloria was fresh out of her honourable discharge as a combat medic, nursing internal and external wounds as she began medical school, and he was at the start of his residency. their first conversation was of poetry wherein he teased her accent when she spoke arabic, and she shot back that his spanish could use some work. malik, in his smooth matter of existence, used this as a segway to pursue her because they would help one another speak the respective languages better. gloria agreed and from there, malik taught her that love could be patient, it could be gentle, but no less passionate.
he cradled her heartache and gave it a safe place to begin mending. they were living together within eight months of dating. he had proposed after a year and a half but they made the promise to wait until she began her residency to get married. nearly four years together, a home, a vast collection of records, literature, travel and trinkets.
malik completed his residency and was offered a position in New York, but he would accept it only after another tour with Doctors Without Borders. he and gloria had spent two summers volunteering. it was not out of the norm, not out of character for either. important for the proud son of a Palestinian mother to offer all he could back to what she had sacrificed. there were children around the world wrapped up in chaos beyond their control. malik went, gloria had stayed behind to begin her residency and their wedding date was reserved for his return.
malik never came home. he, along with several other practitioners, nurses and medics, were killed or injured by way of American-made bombs dropped in Syria. gloria would carry the rest of her residency in silent greif, detached from everyone around her to focus on her job, focus on others, focus on every other person outside of herself.