DUBAI: Award-winning Palestinian poet and writer Mosab Abu Toha has paid tribute to Chris Affleck, the mother of actors Ben and Casey Affleck, following news of her death, remembering her as “like a mother” to his family during their time living in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She was 83 and had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in December.
In an emotional social media post, Abu Toha said he, his wife Maram and their children were “immensely heartbroken” by her passing.
“Chris was far more than a friend,” he wrote. “She was like a mother to me and Maram, and a grandmother to our two, and later three, children during the time we lived in Cambridge between 2019 and 2020.”
Abu Toha recalled how Chris welcomed the family while they were living far from home, taking their children to the Children’s Museum, accompanying Maram to the Cambridge Public Library as she learned English and ensuring they “never felt alone.”
He also reflected on the support she offered after the birth of their son, Mostafa, in May 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
