It has been a month since the earthquake in Turkey and Syria. The focus has shifted to other parts of the world, but the ground still shakes periodically, reminding us that no one is safe. Old, young, men and women. Nature makes no difference, it is merciless to everyone.
It is reported that over 50,000 have now died in both countries. These are such unimaginable numbers that it is almost impossible to take in. Not even when we pass the grave site where all the unidentified are buried. Row after row with a small wooden stick and a number written in marker. Perhaps the remains will be matched using DNA and given a real headstone with a name and date. But right now they are just a stick, a number and a pile of dirt.
The dead take shape in the racial masses
It is instead in the racial masses that the dead take shape. Like through the pile of wedding invitations that didn’t get sent, or the purple skein of yarn that didn’t become a sweater. The well-ironed shirts still hanging in the closet on the fourth floor, despite all the walls being blown away. Old fashion magazines from the 70s. In someone’s corner is a diary paper. A young woman wonders if the boy flirting with her is the one. Is he what is called, the right love? We will never know. One can only hope that she is one of those who miraculously managed to crawl out of the racial masses.
Four sticks with a marker number
After we stood for a while at the unidentified graves, a woman comes walking. She stops and says that she has just received the message that her brother, sister-in-law and their two children who are 7 and 18 years old have been found. They are four sticks with a marker number. For a month, the family has been looking for them in the crowds, in the hospitals and finally they provided DNA samples. The family knew the four were probably dead but clung to hope. Now they have the final answer and the woman we meet will give them a tombstone, name and date. They, like all the others who died in the earthquake, had a history and a life that ended too soon. No one should end up as a number.