Their first kiss in a storm…after traveling from Windsor ON…30 greyhound hours in search of a new life! $35 and a dream…both 19 years old…sleeping in a hotel lobby on an uncertain first night…praying to meet an uncle and a new life the next day…Even with the culture shock of finding no shopping mall and after the declaration, “I’m out of here”, there was a magnetic pull from the people who live here. Despite the fierce need to be independent, entrenched in the characters who come to Brooks, the kindness of the community and the need to help others was what conquered their fear and uncertainty. It eventually forged the bond… Rana : “I didn’t know anyone else, anywhere else in my world, who would do that!”. I take liberty in saying, it may not be that their new life is, in part because of new family and friends, but rather that new family and friends have made a new life. She is now a paramedic and Awad drives a truck and is a volunteer fire fighter. First kiss in a storm…anyone can kiss in the sunshine…