Article content continued

Higgins said during the job interview, Rateb was shaking and he kept clasping his hands together as if praying he would be hired.

He didn’t expect the job to come with a family, at least a temporary one.

Rateb’s parents and siblings remain in Damascus, waiting for the day they’ll be able to come to Canada. Higgins is organizing a fundraiser to raise enough money to sponsor Rateb’s family privately. She hopes, at the very least, to get his brother out before he turns 18 and is forced to do military service.

Photo by Darren Stone / Victoria Times Colonist

Rateb is the eldest of three brothers and two sisters, one of whom was born after Rateb fled Syria for Lebanon at age 14.

Rateb has been on his own for five years, applying for refugee status in Lebanon and finally being resettled to Victoria just over a year ago at age 18. Higgins said even though Rateb is now constantly surrounded by people, either at work or at home, he’s still very much alone.

“The first thing I noticed was the deep sadness,” Higgins said.

She remembers the first heart-to-heart she had with Rateb after the café employees had left for the day. She asked how he was doing and Rateb broke down.

“He just sobbed in my arms. That was our first moment of getting close and for him to share his story,” Higgins said.

She suggested Rateb live with her rent-free, just to have a support network.

“Ever since then he’s my son — until his family gets here.”

Even before entering Higgins’s home, on a leafy street with well-kept gardens, there are the subtle signs that a teenager lives here. There’s the array of stylish sneakers on the doormat and the shiny olive-green road bike propped against the front porch. Rateb loves cycling, and will often ride his bike down to Dallas Road to be near the ocean.