Anayat Monjazeb
October 8, 1925 – August 25, 1992

Anayat Monjazeb was born premature to Jewish parents living in Persia (modern-day Iran) on October 8, 1925. He was not expected to live, but did survive, leading to his name, Anayat, which translates as “Gift from God.”

Anayat grew up in Persia to become a pioneer in textile engineering. There he reared five children with his wife, Mahin, and worked hard to support his family and give to others.

In the mid-seventies, he and his wife, Mahin, moved to the United States, where Anayat continued his work in textiles, first living in Oklahoma, and later in Texas.

Anayat was known well for his generosity, both in his native homeland and in the states. His children remember that he always cared about the needs of workers in the factory and their families.

“When they needed houses, my father had them built,” recalls Mimi Daniali, his daughter and founder of the Anayat House. “If he saw that someone needed work, he would create a job for them. He would pay people to paint his house when it didn’t even need painting, or have them cut his grass whether or not it needed to be cut.”

In the early 1980s, Mimi and her husband, Saeed, moved to the United States, where Saeed became a professor of civil engineering at Lamar University. “We lost everything when we came to this country…my father helped us begin our lives over.”

In 1992, Anayat was diagnosed with an abdominal aneurysm. After two months of testing, Anayat died from complications after surgery, on August 25 of the same year. Those two months before his death were traumatic for his family. Anayat was hospitalized at Methodist Hospital in Houston, Texas, too far from home for family to commute each day to be with him.

For awhile, his wife and other family lived in the waiting room with families of other patients in ICU. Although they were able to find a hotel for most of their stay, Mimi remembers that time spent living in the waiting room: “I was in the same boat…and I saw the other people sleeping on the floor and in chairs.” says Mimi. “Some people can’t afford a hotel. I saw people coming from all over, and there was no place to rest or cook or wash their clothes. They would go on waiting lists for churches to help them.”

That time in the hospital gave Mimi the inspiration to create a place for families to stay while their loved ones were in ICU. After returning to Beaumont, she decided to bring that vision to life, and to dedicate it to her father. “It was not fair to let him die without something to honor and remember him,” she stated.

Mimi sought out a house in Beaumont close to all three hospitals in town (CHRISTUS Hospital St. Elizabeth, Memorial Hermann Baptist Hospital, and the former Beaumont MASH). She found a modest four-bedroom house on the corner of McFaddin and 11th Street. The house needed much repair and cleanup, but she and her husband Saeed took out a second mortgage on their home and began work on it.

Preparing the house was not without problems. They struggled for months with city permits, fire codes, and other regulations, and were taken for $2,500 by a con posing as a roofing contractor.

These discouragements were lifted somewhat by a discovered poem found in a pile of junk left in a hall closet by a previous owner. While cleaning the closet, Mimi found the poem “I’ll Be There” by Bruce B. Wilmer, a work that in many ways reflected Anayat’s personal philosophy and the vision of what Mimi wanted to accomplish with the house. (Click here to read the poem).  The discovery spurred her on.

After much cleanup and repair, and the addition of a wheelchair ramp by civil engineer Saeed, the house opened on February 26, 1994. Since then, the house has remained open and has welcomed more than 400 families.

Anayat’s portrait hangs above the fireplace. “My father was my hero…he taught us that we have to make a difference in this world,” says Mimi. “I wish I could be just a tiny bit like him.”

In 1995, the project officially became a non-profit corporation, with a board of directors. Since then, word has spread, and many more people have been helped by the organization.

Mimi says every person can make a lasting difference in the lives of others. “When my father died, a woman told me that there are a lot of people who are alive but you would think they are dead. But there are people who have died, but still seem alive because of the effect they’ve had on so many lives. That was my father…my brother went back to the factory in Iran in 1994 and people are still living with the same bakery and houses.”

“He always tried to be a father to everyone. He worked hard all of his life and made a lot of money, but the money always went toward others. I wanted to do something to keep his name alive. This way I feel he is alive.”