By Burnett Munthali
In October 2023, Minalu Mergiya boarded a flight from Beirut to Addis Ababa, a one-way ticket marking the end of a 25-year journey away from home.
It was a moment she had been waiting for, a culmination of years of hard work and sacrifice as a domestic helper in Lebanon.
She had arrived in Lebanon as a young woman, a ballet dancer from Ethiopia who couldn’t find work, and a job offer had seemed like the answer.
She didn’t think twice, leaving behind a three-year-old son named Kirubel and his baby brother, who would be raised by their grandmother.
For 25 years, Minalu sent money home, enduring the hardships of living in a foreign country, including the 2006 war, the economic crisis, and the devastating Beirut port explosion in 2020.
She stayed because her children’s futures depended on it, and she saw them only once every five years, for one month at a time.
But Kirubel never forgot why his mother left, and he was determined to make her proud.
“I realized at a very young age that she had gone to work in Lebanon to provide for me,” he said.
“This had an undeniable impact on my determination to succeed.”
One day, while talking about his future, his mother told him her dream: she wanted him to become an airline pilot.
He made it happen, and in April 2023, at just 20 years old, Kirubel graduated from the Ethiopian Airlines Aviation Academy.
Months later, he learned his mother was finally coming home, and he arranged to pilot her flight.
As passengers boarded at Beirut’s airport, Kirubel stepped out from behind a curtain in his captain’s uniform, holding flowers, and his mother froze.
Then she collapsed into his arms, sobbing, overwhelmed by the emotion of the moment.
The boy she had left at three years old, the reason for every sacrifice, every year away, every lonely night, was flying her home.
“This is my way of thanking her and making her proud,” Kirubel said, and the video of their reunion went viral, touching millions around the world.
Minalu’s heart still holds a place for Lebanon and the family who employed her with kindness for over 20 years, but she’s finally where she belongs, home with her sons, watching the dream she planted take flight.
Some sacrifices take decades to bear fruit, and this one flew her home, a testament to the power of love and determination.