Westgate Shopping Centre Terrorist Attack
Photo Cred: Margie Brand Facebook

Margie Brand and her 8-month-old baby are survivors of a tragic terrorist attack in a shopping centre… and this is her message of love.

 

Nairobi, Kenya (18 November 2016) – On Saturday 21 September 2013, unidentified gunmen attacked Westgate shopping mall, an upscale mall in Nairobi, Kenya. The attack resulted in at least 67 deaths, and more than 175 people were reportedly wounded in the mass shooting.

Margie Brand is a survivor of the terrorist attack… and this is her message of love.

Three years ago, armed men walked into a shopping mall on a crowded Saturday morning yielding automatic rifles and killing everyone in sight.

“I held onto my eight month old baby, running, slipping, my heart jumping out of my chest. I hid among the dead for 5 hours.”

“It felt like a lifetime.”

“Experiencing sounds and images I wish I did not. They walked calmly, up and down, among the aisles. Killing everyone they found. Again and again they walked past us. Not seeing me lying, curled up a ball, among the dying.”

Her baby remained completely silent — not a single cry, not a gurgle or laugh… not even the slightest loud breath.

“Logic told me it was the time of final breaths. I was ready.”

“No hate. Yes, incredible palatable fear, but not hate. Fear that moved past fear. Becoming strangely, peacefully accepting. Curled up on the hard, cold floor. I listened to the sounds of death interwoven with the feeling of silence.”

Then. There he was. He was looking down his barrel, straight at her. Towering. Eyes full of disdain. No one knows why that day of all days, after killing children, pregnant women, and anyone they could find, they told Margie to stand up.

“I knew that it would now be my end. They killed the woman lying next to me.”

“They told me to walk. I walked over the dead.”

“I walked out holding my baby.”

“In another part of the mall my friend lay dead. He and sixty seven others never got to leave – many hundreds more still hold the scars from their wounds.”

Like so many survivors, Margie still jumps at the sound of loud noise. The survivor still gets up from a table and walks straight out of a restaurant if the lights flicker as they did just before the attack that day. Sights, sounds, smells – anything can unexpectedly take her back there.

“It takes me back where I no longer want to go. Billions around the world are survivors. Survivors of terrorist attacks, natural disasters, rape, torture, war, conflict, home and farm invasions, shipwrecks, car and plane crashes, assaults. For so many of us, even though time may begin to heal, there will always be sights, sounds and smells that take us back there.”

“Instead of fear and hate, I invite you to join me.”

“Join me in turning off the news. In most cases we already know what happened. We’ve heard and seen more than we ever need to know. I invite you to close your eyes, to imagine any image that gives you the feeling of love.”

“Your newborn baby, children laughing, someone or something that you love.”

“I invite you to take that feeling of love and imagine slowly breathing it out across the world. Wrapping our planet in it.”

“Connecting with others who are emanating the same love. Breathing that feeling of love in and out.”

“Again and again.”

“As many times a day as you remember to, as many days as you can.”

“Like a network of bright light connecting around the globe. I believe that together we can change the frequency of people’s thoughts and hearts. If we emanate fear and hatred, we connect with others who do the same, and we bring more and more into that field.”

“If we emanate love, we grow our love network, and it envelops all others.”

“I shut my computer, my cell phone and ipad. Enough is enough. I close my eyes and emanate love.”

Margie Brand and her little one... 3 years later and stronger than ever
Margie Brand and her little one… 3 years later and stronger than ever

Sources: Facebook
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Recognised as one of the Mail and Guardian’s Top 200 Young South African’s as well as a Primedia LeadSA Hero, Brent is a change maker, thought leader, radio host, foodie, vlogger, writer and all round good guy.

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