Mother Regains Her Child

The Los Angeles Times reports that Zalina Dzandarova, the mother forced to make a Sophie's choice by the Russian school siege evil doers found her daughter — covered with blood, and suffering from shock and dehydration. But alive.

Yesterday the Los Angeles Times reported that Dzandarova forced to make a horrible decision:

"They said, 'Pack your things quickly, and take your babies with you,' " Dzandarova said.

Shortly after, she learned that she would have to choose between taking her son or her daughter.

Dzandarova had both Alan and Alana with her and made a snap decision to pass Alana to her 16-year-old sister-in-law. But the guerrillas saw through the ruse and refused to allow her to take the older child.

"Alana was clinging to me and holding my hand firmly. But they separated us, and said: 'You go with the boy. Your sister can stay here with her.' I cried. I begged them. Alana cried. The women around us wept. One of the Chechens said: 'If you don't go now, you don't go at all. You stay here with your children … and we will shoot all of you.' "

She couldn't save both of them. She could only die with both of them — or save one of them and herself.

"I didn't have time to think what I was doing," she said. "I pressed Alan even stronger to myself, and I went out, and I heard all the time how my daughter was crying and calling for me behind my back. I thought my heart would break into pieces there and then."

In a hospital where Dzandarova found her daughter, Alana told her mother that a fellow hostage, a 15-year-old boy, saved her from the gymnasium after the militants' explosives detonated and set it on fire:

"According to her, when the explosions sounded, she just hurled her arms around him and begged, 'Please don't leave me behind' " — the same words she had uttered to her mother 24 hours earlier.

"She just held on tight to that boy. If it had not been for him, I would probably never see my girl again," Dzandarova said.

Alana told her mother:

I'm not going to school anymore. There's a war at school.

I can't begin to imagine the hell Dzandarova is continuing to go through.