By Tusbeeha Kamran Cheema
Things can feel hard, impossible, and painful. But the word patience is our weapon. This is a story of a family of four who lived happily in Syria. A man, a lady, and their two children.
The parents had two sweet girls named Amira and Farida. They lived in a big beautiful house with a big swimming pool. The mother was a housemaker while the father was an engineer. Amira was five-year-old and Farida was three-year-old. They were playful children. There was not a shop close to their house, so there was a quite long way to buy some food. But on the night of September 5, 2016, the dad could hear many fighter jets hovering in the sky. He looked out of the window, he was so confused. It was night 3 am. He woke his family up. He informed his family that he could see many fighter jets in the sky. While hearing their father, children began to cry. There was a knock at the door. Dad was really worried, but luckily grandparents knocked on their door who lived in their neighborhood. They said there was a group of militants on their way to their city. They had seen on TV that there were two cities that had already been bombed. The mother covered the children’s ears, and the father began to sweat, even though it was only 12 degrees Celsius. The grandparents said they should all stick together so they went to their grandparents’ home. They turned on the TV, and in the news, it was said that the militants were attacking their city. The mother started crying, so the children cried too. But the grandmother comforted them. The father sat on a sofa and thought that they had to go out of home right away— all of them. The first thought that came in fathers’ minds was that Syria would not be a safe place for them. Grandparents kept the kids and Mom and Dad packed their luggage. They brought food, duvet blankets, mattress, and other things. There was no other way out.
The grandmother said they had to go without her because she was too old to go on this turbulent journey. While she was speaking, she heard a loud bang. There was no time to stay so they gave her the biggest hug and left. And the grandfather gave her a kiss on her cheek. The father spoke to three of them at the door and then they ran away.
Amria and Farida climbed on their parent’s shoulders and they started running away, but without knowing that a military car came after them. They fired an RPG towards them but thankfully it did not hit them. They could see a shed (a shelter) away so they ran over to it for shelter. Their grandfather could not run and he fell down but their father was strong he lifted their grandfather up so they could run away together. And the militant shouted ——Come here—- but they kept running towards the shelter and locked it. The Dad and Mom were breathless. The grandfather could barely breathe so they gave him water. The kids were completely shocked. Inside the shed, it was completely dark. In the middle of fear and shock, their father got an idea to leave his terrible country and try to reach Denmark. But the execution of this idea was not as easy as one could think and it could take months. Outside, they could hear militants shouting. The Mom asked her Dad where they were going to get out from here? He said that at eight in the morning they would leave the shelter then would see what would fate is bring to them.
The next morning, the father woke everyone up, but the father did not want to drive the car for some security reason.
They couldn’t hear anything outside. They slipped slowly outside the shelter. They walked for hours, but eventually, they had to stop. It looked like they were in a desert. Around 500 meters away from them, there was a very old hut where they had intended to enter. There were two soldiers inside the hut who said they were not allowed to go anywhere. They had rifles in their hands. The little daughter began to cry. They took them over to a cave. It was old and they saw a landmine so the father said, take the chance to move on. They hugged each other and moved carefully.
They found a car, so they immediately took it, and the father immediately grabbed the steering wheel and drove away. They could find nothing but just dunes of sands. They had been driving for about 12 hours. Two whole days had passed. They thought it was in another country. They saw a man outside and asked where they were, he said you are (were) in Istanbul. So they were in Turkey. They had only eaten toast with cheese, so the first thing they did was asking for food. The kids said, are we going to die? The dad said that as long we trust in Allah there is always a way. About two weeks later, they were in Denmark. While the travel took them one and a half months. But it’s all about patience. And the most important thing to trust in Allah.
