Through the Palace Keyhole

About Ann Sawalha

Born in Pontiac Michigan in 1935 and raised in Detroit Ann Sawalha met Sami in 1956 at the hospital where she was doing her nurses' training. After graduation she worked as a surgical nurse in urology before her marriage. In March 1959 Ann and Sami left America in its post-war golden age to go to the Middle East at a time when air travel was rare telephone connections were relayed by appointment and the region was underdeveloped. Immediately upon her arrival in Jordan she was introduced to her husband's large Arab Christian Tribe the Azzizat and began to learn about their heritage culture and customs. Sami entered the family hotel business and during their 53-year marriage they lived in three of the five Palace Hotels that the family owned and operated on both the east and west banks of the River Jordan. She was able to use her professional nursing credentials in Jerusalem after the June War of 1967 when she taught two courses at the Augusta Victoria Hospital School of Nursing. Otherwise she was Sami's helpmate and partner in the operation of their Palace Hotel in Jerusalem where they lived for 18 years and raised their children under Israeli occupation. Due to the frustrations and uncertainties they experienced in occupied Jerusalem Sami built two hotels in Amman where they eventually moved in 1982. Ann has looked through the various Palace keyholes to view the culture religion war politics business and family that have surrounded her. Her life with family unfolds simultaneously with the tumultuous events of a region in crisis and transition. Ann's beloved Sami died in 2011. She is mother to Leah Lenna and Hanna and grandmother to Rawan Shereen Sami Nadine and Rakan. She lives in Amman Jordan