As one of the longest serving SOS Mothers in Egypt, Jean D. remembers when the SOS Children's Village in Alexandria was still a construction site. Even though she is the only Coptic Christian mother among a majority of Muslim mothers, Jean D. has become one of the most highly esteemed mothers.

Jean D. is extremely passionate about her work: "I haven't spent a single night away from the Village in the 26 years I have lived in it. Mothers typically get three days off per month; I never took any days off."

Before Jean D. joined the SOS Children's Village, her life was marked by a succession of tragic events. She was widowed at the age of 18 and left with two small daughters to take care of. Shortly after her husband's death, Jean D.'s eldest daughter died in a terrible accident.

Jean D. was 30 when she heard that SOS Children's Villages was building a new Village in Alexandria. She immediately applied for the job of SOS Mother, got the job and underwent the necessary training. "I wanted a job where I could raise children as though they were my own children," Jean D. explains.

Early in Jean's SOS Motherhood, she took in six siblings whose parents had died in an accident. She had been riding a public bus when she heard two men talking about their neighbors, a couple who died in a gas explosion in their own home and left behind six children with no one to take care of them. Jean D. got the family's address and visited them.

When she first saw the children, Jean D. was shocked. "They looked like they were almost dead. Their emaciated frames could draw pity from the hardest heart," she remembers. She spoke with the children's relatives. Their extended family, unable to provide properly for them, was more than happy when she suggested that the children could be brought up in the SOS Children's Village.

One of the children in the second group was a girl named Mariam. Mariam had two damaged heart valves. As she grew older, she needed constant medical attention and monitoring. Eventually doctors recommended surgery.

"The price of heart surgery was very expensive, but I wanted her to receive the best medical care possible," Jean D. recounts. "I didn't expect it, but everyone was extremely supportive. The SOS Staff and Mothers all supported me throughout that difficult time. They took care of my other children and some even wanted to help out financially."

Many years have passed since then and many children have left the Village.  Jean D. remembers all of them with fondness and keeps in touch with most of them.  Today, she is raising four more children and focusing on their needs. She spends most of her free time sewing and making toys. She even keeps a diary of her daily life, with all its joys and pains and is thinking of publishing her experiences in a book when she retires.

Jean reaches retirement age in two years, but it is difficult for her to let go. "I don't want to leave the Village. This is my only home, and every corner, every stone, every brick is a part of me. The children, Mothers and SOS Staff are my family," Jean D. says.