Born in Bethlehem on August 17th 1953, with family roots originating in Turkey, Rebecca Samaan was the second born of six children. She was raised in Jordan and moved to the US at the age of 13 to the city of Chicago. While pursuing a degree in Mathematics at the University of Illinois, Rebecca met Habib in 1970 and they were married in 1980.
New job opportunities would take them to Seattle, Washington for two wonderful years, before making their way to Los Angeles, where Becky would pursue a career as a Director of IT for the next 30+ years. Eventually they settled down in Orange County where they would raise their three sons: Wasif, Chaddy and Rami.
Together, Habib and Rebecca explored and traveled the world, visiting countless landmarks: Jamaica, Italy, Spain, France, Switzerland, Morocco, Egypt, Lebanon, Turkey, Greece, to name a few.
Rebecca finally retired in 2017 and devoted herself to her three grandchildren, Adour, James and Aydin. She knew how to live life to the fullest and put love into every single thing she would do. Rebecca peacefully passed away on December 23, 2023. She will forever be in our hearts as the center of our family. Memory Eternal.
In lieu of flowers, please consider donating in Rebecca’s name to the Palestinian Children Relief Fund (https://pcrf1.app.neoncrm.com/rebeccawarwarmemorial).
The PCRF is a legally-registered non-political, non-profit, 501(c)3 tax-exempt organization established in 1991 by concerned people to address the medical and humanitarian needs of Palestinian and Arab youths in the Middle East. We have provided thousands of children life-saving care based on their need, not on religion, gender, nationality or sect.
The main objective of the PCRF is to identify and treat every child in the Middle East in need of specialized surgery not available to them locally. We locate, sponsor and run international, volunteer medical missions to the Middle East, in additional to locating free medical care abroad for children who cannot be adequately treated in the Middle East. The PCRF is the main organization regularly sending injured and sick Arab children to North and South America, the Middle East and Europe for free care that is not available to them there. Since 1991 over 1,000 children have been abroad for millions of dollars of donated care, and over 10,000 have had complex surgery by our visiting medical missions to the region. The PCRF has been awarded the top 4-star rating by Charity Navigator for fiscal management, while being able to treat more kids than any other charity in the Middle East.