Afsaneh Shiftehfar

Dear Afsaneh Shiftehfar:

You've been on my mind...

I often think of you, always fondly. We haven't been in touch for decades. Wherever you are, I hope you're doing well. 

We met when I was thirteen and you were an adult, and I spent most of the next decade with you and looking up to you. You were my best friend, my older sister, my mentor, my ally, my fun parent. I don't have many memories from my teenage years that don't include you, and what I remember most is having fun and laughing with you.

My first memory of us spending time together is when I was at school with a fever, and the school officials couldn't reach my dad because he was at the university teaching, so they contacted you, his assistant. You picked me up, took me home, put me to bed, and made me soup. That must be when I adopted you because from then on you and your husband and your brother became my best friends.

Do you remember you gave me a haircut the day I graduated from high school? You had no idea what you were doing, and we were laughing the whole time.

You were with me when I went to register for English classes to keep busy during the summer, and they wanted to hire me to teach two classes because I'd scored too high on my placement test and they didn't have a class for my level. I took the job, my first official job, and we laughed so much on the way back home. That was when I was sixteen, 1987, and that job was the beginning of my teaching career... which continued for thirty-one years, until 2018.

We watched so many movies, visited so many bookstores, cooked so many meals, and ate so many desserts together. We were together when the city was being attacked with bombs and missiles. We were together when you had your son, my beloved Mani, now a young man, whom I have been following on social media. 

You were with me when I got admitted to the university, and you were with me when I graduated years later.

Circumstances made us lose touch, but you have always been on my mind and in my heart. Wherever you are today, I wish you the best, and I want you to know I'm grateful for you.

Love,

Noosha Ravaghi


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