Beslan: Portraits Of Grief
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Tamara Shotayeva and her grandson, Georgy Kuchuyev - Tamara lost her daughter Albina and her granddaughter Zarina, who was starting second grade. Tamara's husband, Tsara, couldn't cope with the loss and died soon after of heart failure. During the siege, Tamara was visiting her sick mother in Siberia. Her friends thought she wouldn't be able to bear the news. She suffered from asthma and had already undergone three complicated operations. But it was Tamara who identified the body of her daughter, and who has since become the source of support for the men in her family who survived the tragedy.
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Lidiya Urmanova - "My grandchildren Yulechka and Yanochka visited me on the evening of August 31. We drank tea and joked. They showed me a new dance they'd learned and then went home. I saw them out and then called my daughter to ask if they'd returned safely. Then I called my eldest son Sergei. My youngest granddaughter Zalinochka picked up the phone. She was bursting with happiness. "Granny, I'm so happy!" she said. "I'm starting school tomorrow! I wish morning would hurry up and get here, I'm so excited to learn. I've prepared everything for my first day!" When I spoke with my daughter-in-law Rita, she was nervous about everything, especially that she hadn't been able to find Zalina a notebook in the Ossetian language."
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Lidiya and Sergei Urmanov - In those September days of 2004, Lidiya lost her daughter Larisa Rudik-Urmanova, grandchildren Yulia, Yana, Zalina, Maneshka and daughter-in-law Rita. Her other daughter-in-law Natalya and her son were severely wounded. The first victim was 12-year-old Yana. She suffered from diabetes and died in the gymnasium on the second day, in front of her mother. There was no medicine. Zalina was starting first grade in 2004. She was 6 1/2 years old. Eight people from the family left for school that day. Only two returned.
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Soslan Batagov, whose mother and two sisters were killed - Soslan -- or Sosik, as his family calls him -- was left in the care of his father and grandparents after his mother Marina and his sisters Yulia and Alana were killed in the Beslan tragedy. Soslan, who was just 1 year old, was home with his grandmother at the time of the attack. During the siege, Marina was able to breast-feed some of the youngest hostages. A month after the tragedy, her body and those of her daughters had still not been found and the family was hoping for a miracle. But in the end, there was no miracle.