Time in Syria

There have been some remarkable people in my life, and Asma Al-Assad is certainly one of those. An intensely private person in a highly public role, she had a unique capacity, in my experience, for engaging deeply with people while still keeping them away from those private things that meant the most to her. I rarely heard her speak about her feelings at all, and never in public - there was always a guardedness. I spoke to her occasionally about this, and she always said "she had been well trained" - for the role of First Lady, and the barrier she maintained was part of this. That may be so, but I wonder if she wan't also quite a private person anyway. I'm sure she was able to let down her guard with friends she had known a long time, but she never did with me, and there were many times when I felt this reticence got in the way of my helping her to deal with things effectively; there were some things - hopes, fears, problems, uncertainties - which someone not so firmly "being" First Lady could have shared more openly and maybe enabled us to

As it was, I think we worked together quite well.