Beslan Cemetery

Beslan Cemetery

When a Grandmother has to visit her Granddaughter’s grave

The picture at the Beslan cemetery, printed in today’s newspaper dated September 1st, 2006, made me file the moment away as a remembrance moment.

The first thing that draws is the captivating face of the young child, her bright eyed confidence, dewy and fresh as the cute flower tucked behind her ear.

She is formally posing, and this photographed portrait has been engraved or reproduced on the gravestone of the dead child. The caption states “Too Young to Die.”

It is hard to imagine that this lively faced lovely girl is now a rapidly decomposing putrid form under the cold dark earth the gravestone marks.

Yet the picture of the grieving grandmother whose withered hand wistfully strokes the gravestone, is no poised portrait. She is a real woman, caught in a flesh and blood moment of acute despair, unable to bear the agonizing grief and guilt of surviving while her beloved granddaughter did not.

There in that brief moment, old age and youth are juxtaposed and eerily cross over into each other’s domain.

The young girl now smiles the mocking age-old smile of Cynical Death –harsh, unforgiving, while the fresh raw grief softens the frail old lady’s age lined face
Into that of an unwary baby, a helpless confused infant lost in the grim dark woods of war and hate.

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(c) Amrita Valan 2014