‘We lost a loving father’

Saudis from all walks of life recalled the visionary steps of the late King Abdullah who, they said, will be greatly missed by all.
Zubaidah Khayyat, a staffer at the Armed Forces Hospital in King Abdul Aziz Airbase in Dhahran, said: “Saudis did not only lose a king, we have all lost a loving father.”
Ruaa Hariri, a lecturer at King Abdul Aziz University, underlined the pain the king’s passing has inflicted on Saudi society. "You will be greatly missed,” Hariri said.
For Sherif Elabdelwahab, chief executive officer of the national entrepreneurship institute in Riyadh, the king’s death means the loss of a great reformist.
“The death of King Abdullah is deeply saddening ... He was the founder of modern Saudi Arabia who undertook popular reforms and defied turmoils in the region,” he said.
“He promoted changes, such as women’s participation in supreme government systems, and succeeded to apply modernizing laws and regulations to different sectors such as mainstream higher education,” he said.
Amal Al-Sharif, from Jeddah, was in tears. “It breaks my heart. We are going to miss him so badly. There are no words that can describe how much I loved our beloved king,” she said.
Wadha Al-Otaibi compared the blow with the loss of a father. “Do you know how it feels when your father is gone? You remain with your siblings and Mom alone at home and are afraid of any noise outside? That’s how we feel right now,” she said.
Bayaan, from Abha, said: “The light is turned off.”
Dalal Jaroush, an MBA student, said: “We feel orphaned.”
Social media websites were filled with condolences from all over the world.
Grief-stricken citizens expressed their sorrow in different ways. While some remained silent in shock, others shared words or even poems to praise the late king.
People of the Gulf Cooperation Countries (GCC) have all united to share the sadness of the Saudi people. Officials, public figures, and leaders shared their feelings publicly.
Fay Alsharqawi, an actress from Bahrain, shared her sadness on her Instagram account. “We will never forget when in the middle of the crisis of Bahrain, King Abdullah said that Bahrain is his youngest daughter,” she wrote.
Fouad Ali, an actor from Kuwait, shared with his 700,000 social media followers a heartbreaking picture of king Abdullah and wrote: “May God pour patience on our hearts. RIP.”
Shaimaa Sabt, an actress from Bahrain, replaced her profile picture with the picture of King Abdullah and tweeted: “King Abdullah asked us to pray for him when he was alive. We should now never forget to pray for him when he is no more.”
Ali Al-Hashim, a former senior aviation engineer at Kuwaiti Airlines, said: “Kuwait is mourning the loss of the father of the GCC. We are all one and what saddens Saudis, saddens us as well. We may have different accents and flags, but Saudi Arabia and Kuwait are inseparable.”
Saeed Al-Shamsi, from UAE, tweeted: “The whole of Abu Dhabi is shattered.”
Another tweet from Yousef Farouk, Qatar, said: “We will never forget you.”