Sometimes the news is unbearable, the suffering of innocent people, of little children gunned down in the name of god, of senseless murder and cruelty… and then you read a story of an ordinary man who is a hero, braver than the gunmen, the murders and the terrorists… worth more than any of those who kill and hurt and harm.
The terrible events in Kenya were shocking and horrific and the stories of what happened are gradually emerging. One story was about the Walton family who had gone shopping in the mall but became trapped as gunmen and maybe gunwomen roamed around murdering. A man called Abdul Haji had received a text from his brother who was trapped and had rushed in to try to find him and help if he could. As he went through the chaotic scenes he seeing dead people lying everywhere, old and young, when he suddenly saw a woman, Mrs Walton hiding under a table across an empty area of the Mall. He and another man had been shooting at the terrorists who had returned fire, and the poor women and her children were trapped in the middle of it.
He called to the woman and got her to send the oldest child to him as they could not all get across the space together, and the brave little four year old ran across to him, even though he was a stranger with a gun. The rest of the family were then able to run across to him, and to safety.
“This little girl is a very brave girl,” Abdul Haji said. “Amid all this chaos around her, she remained calm, she wasn’t crying and she actually managed to run towards men who were holding guns. I was really touched by this and I thought if such a girl can be so brave … it gave us all courage.”
The bravery of the child and the goodness of Abdul Haji and others should be remembered long after the perpetrators are brought to justice and punished.
You can read the full story here:
Lois Elsden 