Adapted from a story by The Washington Post’s Todd C. Frankel, Tim Craig and Brittney Martin.
Then, on May 18, with the school year almost over, a gunman opened fire at Santa Fe High School, killing Sheikh and nine other people.
On Sunday at a mosque in Stafford, Tex., hundreds gathered to mourn the teenager who dreamed of being a diplomat.
The mourners poured into the Masjid Sabireen mosque in this small town about 35 miles from Santa Fe, removing their shoes before stepping inside. Several students from Santa Fe High made the trip. So did Houston’s mayor and two members of Congress. The mayor of tiny Stafford sat down and hurriedly pulled out his phone.
“Can you please make sure all flags in town are flown at [half-staff],” Mayor Leonard Scarcella said into his phone. “Tell him it’s urgent.”
Sabika’s host family from Santa Fe arrived, six children in tow, the mother covering her blond hair with the red prayer shawl she’d received as a Mother’s Day gift from Sabika.
The funeral was brief.
The casket was carried into the overflowing mosque, and everyone stood up. Minutes later, the service was over. And Fuad Cochinwala, president of the Islamic Center of Greater Houston, quietly worked to move the casket outside to a waiting hearse. Several people argued that he should wait until all the speeches and memorials were over. But Cochinwala was insistent. The casket needed to be removed now so it could be taken to the airport.
The consul general of Pakistan in Houston spoke of “shared grief.” Houston’s mayor noted that Sabika had achieved her dream of being a diplomat by pulling together two countries. And Sabika’s host father recalled how his family had fasted along with Sabika during Ramadan. He thanked her for teaching him about love, “because when people love each other, these kinds of things don’t happen.”
More speeches were to come. But Sabika’s body was gone. Before her death, Sabika was scheduled to return to Kirachi on June 9. But she would return 20 days earlier than planned.
The Turkish Airlines plane carrying her casket was scheduled to depart Houston at 8 p.m. It would travel thousands of miles and make a brief stop in Istanbul. It was scheduled to land in Karachi at 4:30 a.m. Tuesday, local time.
Sabika’s family would be waiting.
“You imagine what it’s like for her parents — all their hopes and dreams wrapped up in this child,” said Farha Ahmed, an attorney from nearby Sugarland who attended Sabika’s funeral. “And the next time they will see her, she’ll be in a casket.”
Craig and Martin reported from Santa Fe, Tex.
