Posted on 07/09/2004 9:51:30 AM PDT by Scenic Sounds
OCEANSIDE – "You want to dance?" 18-year-old Nichole Merzi asked the Marine shuffling his feet alone in a corner of the club Margarita Rocks.
Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun accepted and by the end of the night he was smitten by the friendly girl who wore a T-shirt with a heart and the word "Lebanon," her father's country.
"I'm from Lebanon," Hassoun said, and so began a courtship that involved Merzi and her Oceanside family.
Nineteen days ago, the Camp Pendleton Marine went missing from his unit in Iraq, and it was feared he had been beheaded by Iraqi insurgents.
Yesterday, Merzi and her parents, who recalled these events, said the news that Hassoun is alive only confirms what they have known all along, that he would be OK.
"It makes me happy because after all these reports that he was dead, it turns out they were wrong," Merzi said, absorbing the news at her parents' pizza parlor where a large photo of Hassoun gazes at customers.
The 24-year-old Marine translator is caught up in a tangled story in which the latest twist is his safe arrival yesterday at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut.
"I don't keep up with the news that much," Merzi said, though her eyes teared when she mentioned Hassoun's clan in Lebanon was involved in gunfights yesterday.
The night after he danced with her, Hassoun tracked down Merzi at Spanky's, her parent's pizza place on Oceanside Boulevard, which is popular with Marines from the nearby base.
There he began pursuing her, the family said, visiting the restaurant with friends who are also Arabic translators with the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force. They and their unit returned to Iraq in February.
Merzi's father, Mahmoud, would entertain Hassoun and his friends after the restaurant closed with pizza laced with zaatar, a Middle Eastern mix of green herbs.
Hassoun asked Merzi's parents if he could date their daughter, the couple said. He also asked if he could marry her, her mother said.
Ecstatic, the parents said it was up to her but they hoped for a wedding.
"I promised I would save her for him and they could talk about it when he got back," Merzi's mother, Michele Lisi-Merzi, said.
Merzi said she sees Hassoun as a friend, a gentleman who helped her move into her dorm room at Cal State Northridge, where she is a sophomore. They went on only one date alone, a trip to the Olive Garden restaurant where they talked about soccer and Lebanon.
A distant cousin of Hassoun in Tripoli has said Hassoun married a cousin in Lebanon several months ago by proxy, with his father standing in for him.
Merzi said she has heard that Hassoun is married, but does not believe it.
"He is a very genuine person. He talked to my father about me. I would never question a man-on-man talk," she said. "But if he's married, then he is. Married or not, he's part of this family. But if he's married, God help him."
Daughter - "But if he's married, God help him."
Merzi said she has heard that Hassoun is married, but does not believe it.
Some reports also have Hassoun having a kid in Lebanon. Was that done by proxy also????
Wonder if this guy might be staying in Tripoli for awhile with his Lebanese wife.
LOL. Well, 2banana, I guess anything is possible, isn't it? ;-)
We're being told around these parts that they're going to bring him back to Camp Pendleton for questioning. And, when they're done doing that, maybe they can drop him off at Spanky's Pizza for some more questioning!
This guy is praying for the brig. Lebanese family gets into a shootout over him, American family just waiting to get their hands on him!!!
Oh, yeah. Mom promised to "save her for him." Serious matter - not to be taken lightly. ;-)
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