title: A Memory of 24 Hours with the Grandparents
author: andranette A. Landrum
description: A native of Tulsa, Oklahoma, Andranette A. Landrum and her husband Curtis have raised two children: Arhrreane and Teah Nay. She is self-employed as a specialized writer and in her spare time enjoys swimming, traveling, and singing.
zlib_text: 
  
  
    *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   * 
  
  * * *
  
  
  Sea Prayer
  
  
  Khaled Hosseini
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  My dear Marwan,
  
  
  in the long summers of childhood, when I was a boy the age you are now, your
  uncles and I
  
  
  spread our mattress on the roof of your grandfather’s farmhouse outside of
  Homs.
  
  
  
  
  
  ![](images/00019.jpg)
  
  
  ![](images/00031.jpg)
  
  
  ![](images/00037.jpg)
  
  
  We woke in the mornings
  
  
  to the stirring of olive trees in the breeze, to the bleating of your
  grandmother’s goat, the clanking of her cooking pots, the air cool and the sun
  a pale rim of persimmon to the east.
  
  
  
  
  
  ![](images/00006.jpg)
  
  
  ![](images/00016.jpg)
  
  
  We took you there when you were a toddler.
  
  
  
  
  
  ![](images/00040.jpg)
  
  
  I have a sharply etched memory of your mother from that trip, showing you a
  herd of cows grazing in a field blown through with wild flowers.
  
  
  
  
  
  I wish you hadn