Sgts. James Mandeville, 24, (left) and James Lawson, 25, both with Company B, 2nd Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment out of Fort Polk, La., sit with Ali Hassan, 58, Saturday on plastic patio chairs they bought him. (James Warden / S&S)
BAGHDAD — The Iraqi man hauls out four plastic patio chairs as the group enters his living room Saturday afternoon in the Toma neighborhood of Baghdad.
Ali Hassan has decorated the room with motley blankets, rugs and a shattered mirror with a comb on top that he uses to tease the short-haired soldiers. But the area has little furniture besides the four cheap chairs he now carries.
Still, he beams proudly as he presents the chairs to two soldiers with 2nd Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment, a local interpreter and a reporter and motions for the group to sit.
Hassan himself remains standing throughout the 20-minute conversation. It is a gesture at once noble and pathetic because of the cheap chairs that are all he has to offer.
Hassan was poor even before the Americans invaded Iraq. He’s just 58 now, but heart problems forced him to retire after nearly three decades working at a refinery for the Ministry of Oil.
The ensuing five years only added to his difficulties. He now scrapes by on just $250 every two months. While his son has a job at the courthouse, the $7 or $8 he makes a day gives him little leftover to help his father. In such a tight financial situation, there’s no money for furniture — even plastic patio chairs.
The two soldiers had stopped by Hassan’s home during a routine patrol the previous Thursday. Hassan — polite then, too — motioned for Sgts. James Lawson and James Mandeville to sit on the floor.
The Fort Polk, La., soldiers instead excused themselves and promised to return later.
After a quick consultation at their vehicle, they headed to a nearby store, where they haggled with the merchant for a good price on the plastic patio chairs. Then they plopped down their own money, picked up the chairs and returned to Hassan’s home.
“We bought four plastic chairs for 20 bucks,” Lawson shrugs. “It’s nothing to us, but it’s huge for them.”
So huge that Hassan told his family, his neighbors, everyone he knows.
Hassan beams brightly over his new furniture. These may be just four plastic patio chairs. But when an unexpected gift fills a mostly empty room, these plastic patio chairs can seem like an entire living room set.
