Kia Scherr, one year after the terrorist attacks in Mumbai killed her husband and daughter

iPeace friends: I am borrowing this space to share a piece written by Kia Scherr. Kia's husband Alan and their 13-year-old daughter were killed in last year's terrorist attacks in Mumbai. Kia stunned the world when she said the terrorists should be forgiven, and shown love and compassion. Here are her words. For the original post please see http://www.onelifealliance.org/61.html.


Here I am in Nashville, Tennessee on the eve of the Peace Dragon Parade during the weekend of the Southern Festival of Books. As I sit in a friend’s condo waiting out a tornado warning and a severe thunderstorm watch, there is controversy in the news regarding President Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize. And tonight is the New York Yankees’ second playoff game. After spending the past twelve years living in a meditation sanctuary in the Blue Ridge Mountains of central Virginia, this is all very exciting in a new way for me. But even more exciting is why I find myself here at this time. Yesterday I came across a quote that describes what this past year has been like for me:

“I am thankful that thorns have roses.” - Alphonse Karr

Last year at this time, my daughter Naomi, was intensely focused on studying for her SSAT exam, a requirement for applying to the Emma Willard Boarding School in Troy, NY. Simultaneous to that, she was busily preparing for her upcoming trip to India with her father and a group from Synchronicity. As she was eagerly awaiting her passport and visa to come in the mail, she was making multiple lists of all that she would pack for the trip. Her father worked with her daily on math reviews.

On the weekend of November 7th, we drove to upstate New York for the school interview and exam. All went well. She loved the school, they loved her, and she felt encouraged in fulfilling the remaining requirement – a written essay on her experience in India.

On November 14th, I drove Alan and Naomi to the airport. I hung out with them before they boarded the plane for a final visit and then we said our goodbyes. On the way home, I stopped for lunch at a Chinese restaurant the three of us had gone to a few months before. As I was leaving, I broke open the fortune cookie and it read, “Today your luck has changed forever.” I was rather stunned to read a fortune like that and wondered what it meant….

On November 26th the day before Thanksgiving, I was in sunny Florida getting ready to watch the Oprah show with my mother. The phone rang – it was Bobbie Garvey, friend and managing director of Synchronicity Foundation. She said, “Kia, turn on the news - the Oberoi Hotel is being attacked by terrorists.”

At 6 a.m. on November 28th the U.S. Consulate called to confirm the deaths of Alan and Naomi. They had both been shot and killed in the Tiffin Restaurant at the Oberoi Hotel. At that moment, life as I knew it ended along with theirs.

Even in those first few hazy, grief-filled days, I knew there was more to this story. As I sat on the sofa watching the follow-up news with my family in Florida, I said, “We have to show them that love is our response.” In the first conversation I had with Master Charles, he said, “We have a role to play – there is a message here.”

We are just beginning this conversation. It is a conversation born of the value for life itself. It is a conversation that has inspired the creation of the One Life Alliance and the Peace Dragon art project. It is a conversation that will travel the world and connect all of humanity as we honor the sacredness of all life. Stay tuned….there is lots more to come!