In the morning I was woken by a distant sobbing. It sounded old and heartbroken. It was Grandma.

I slipped out from beside Ayamin and ran to the barn. Inside, the family was sitting around Grandpa, who lay back in the hay the same way he’d slept the night before – only now his face was blue and his chest had stopped moving. When I touched his hand it was stone cold.

With the help of the farmer, we moved him to a small patch of grass under an old oak tree and placed him in the soft earth beneath it. For the first time since I’d met her, Grandma didn’t look strong or in control, her hand trembled in mine.

Much later as the sun was setting, I looked out from the barn to see her lone silhouette shivering in front of the tree.

It was two weeks later that Ayamin and I finally decided to leave the camp. Hugging the family as we left was too much for us. First I started to cry, and then Ayamin couldn’t help herself. Opposite me, Mahdi wiped at tears of his own.

‘Danny brother,’ he said, ‘This is not goodbye – you make sure you come back. I think Mister Farmer would be very happy if you brought a shovel too.’

We both laughed, and I hugged him again.

They’d decided to stay, the work was okay and ‘Mister Farmer’ had arranged for the kids to be enrolled in a school.

Grandma was the last one waiting to say goodbye to us. She’d become thin since Grandpa had left, but some of her spirit was beginning to return.

As we stepped away from the hug Grandma held us with her arms. She placed a hand on each of our foreheads and began to sing a prayer in Arabic. I couldn’t catch the words but the sound was happy-sad.

When she stepped away, she stared at us with her big brown eyes.

‘This means you are family. You will always have people to call home.’

I opened my mouth to say something in return. But the words wouldn’t come. Instead, I wrapped my arms around the woman once more and hugged her until I was sure she’d never fade from me.

Then I pulled the pack onto my back and took Ayamin’s hand.

‘Goodbye family.’ Grandma said.

‘Goodbye family,’ Ayamin and I repeated.

And we began to walk down the dirt track to the farm gate.