4 seconds...

She was only 10 years old when her family was killed.   It wasn’t supposed to be like this, she wasn’t supposed to lose them.  They were going to escape and move to Canada for a life of freedom, they dreamed of it and made plans but that all changed.  She saw them die, she saw everything right before her body went flying back and then she saw nothing.  

 For almost two weeks, they took shelter in the basement of their home.  The air strikes and bombing was so bad, they feared being outside until they didn’t have a choice.  They had been without food and water for two days and they needed to find what they could.  They were careful and waited for things to settle down then they took a chance and stepped out.  

 Her father went first, then her uncle, her mother next.  As she was walking out the door, the sun hit her eyes and she stumbled and fell.  She had been in the dark for so long, the sun hurt her eyes and she lost her footing coming out of the doorway.    As she cried out, she reached out to her mother and as her mother turned towards her with a worried look on her face, that’s when she saw him.   He came out of nowhere, her heart started to race and she could feel herself panicking.  She wanted to scream out to warn them but nothing came out, she froze.   Her mother saw the look of horror on her face and turned to the direction she was looking and her body stiffened.  

 It happened so fast; they never had a chance to escape what was about to happen and they knew it.  The man pulled the pin and threw the grenade at them; it dropped to the ground and within 4 seconds their lives changed forever…