In 2017 27 year old Lydia Mccarchuk left her home country of ukraine and moved to Bracknell which is a town just outside of london shortly after moving into her new apartment lydia went out and got a job as an accountant at a local hotel and then after that lydia pretty much swore off her social life and instead just focused exclusively on working hard and saving money the one reprieve she got from work was going to church on sundays two years later lydia was at her church enjoying the coffee hour that always followed the sunday sermon when another member of her church who she didn’t really speak to this 41 year old man named norbert varga approached her and kind of awkwardly complimented her shoes and she was so flattered by this that it opened up a friendly conversation between the two of them and during this conversation lydia was pleasantly surprised to find out that norbert was an ex-pat too an expat is someone who lives outside of their native country norbert had moved to the uk in 2018 so that’s one year after lydia had moved to the uk and he came from hungary which shares a border with ukraine and just like lydia when he got to the uk he kind of put all his energy into his work and trying to save money he was a radio technician and a photographer and so the two spend the rest of this coffee hour chatting and enjoying each other’s company and then afterwards when they left the church and they both got home they both found themselves thinking about the other there was clearly an attraction there and so the following sunday they both very eagerly rushed back to church in order to spend more time together and sure enough during that coffee hour they spent the whole time together just chatting it up and then afterwards they exchanged phone numbers and made plans to get together outside of church they were going to go on a date and so the rest as they say is history two years after norbert complimented lydia’s shoes they got married in Bracknell and while the wedding was great unfortunately none of lydia’s family members who were all in ukraine none of them could attend the actual wedding and so the newlywed couple decided the way they would handle that is their honeymoon would be spent in ukraine that way lydia’s family could celebrate their wedding as well for a variety of reasons this honeymoon trip to ukraine kept getting pushed back but finally in September of 2021, everything lined up everyone was available and so Norbert and Lydia rushed to the airport and they hopped on a flight and during this flight to Ukraine Lydia remembers being so excited specifically about her husband finally getting a chance to spend some time with her 29 year old younger brother miroslav, lydia was very close with her brother and so it mattered to her greatly that he and her husband had a good relationship but to that point because of the great physical distance between the uk and ukraine the two had really not had that much interaction and so they really didn’t know each other very well and so this trip was really important to lydia and miroslav.
He really picked up on that because he put together this camping trip for the end of their stay in ukraine where he knew he’d be able to step aside with norbert and chat with him and get to know him a little bit and so that was kind of like the fail-safe where if he and norbert did not get a chance to speak all week because they were visiting with so many people they would have a chance to at the end of the week on this camping trip so after a few hours of flying lydia and norbert touched down in ukraine and they make their way to lydia’s family’s house where they’re going to be staying for the week and that night and for the next several days the couple was swamped with several family reunions and meetups with old friends that hadn’t seen lydia in years and so norbert and miroslav were not getting any time to themselves and lydia really knew that and so she and norbert began looking forward to this camping trip because that not only represented a kind of peaceful break from the chaos of all these reunions but it also did represent the one chance they knew miroslav and norbert would get to interact with each other and so finally september 15th the end of the week it came and it was time to go on this camping trip and so lydia and norbert and miroslav and nine other family members they all packed up their tents and their camping belongings and they loaded up a couple of cars and they drove over to the base of the carpathian mountain range this mountain range which stretches for nearly 1 000 miles across eastern and central europe are very popular amongst tourists because it’s stunningly beautiful everything is green and lush and there are these crystal clear lakes and breathtaking waterfalls and all these amazing animals running around and there’s no mosquitoes and they have these really cool hikes that bring you up to these very impressive overlooks and so that night miroslav had made reservations for this one campsite this very popular campsite that was up in this clearing not too far up the mountain and it had this great view down to the forest below and because it was in a clearing it had this unobstructed view up to the sky where in this area you could look up and just see stars in every direction and so when lydia and the rest of this group arrive in the parking lot of this mountain range they were all really excited to get up to this campsite and just enjoy being there and so they parked their cars they get their gear out they find the trailhead and then they begin hiking up the mountain and about two hours later they arrive at this clearing they find their campsite which was marked by the small fire pit underneath a couple of trees and so they go over and they set their tents up and some people go out and get some firewood and then before long a fire was made and this group of 12 people that had not seen each other in so long they just sat down and began enjoying each other’s company they put tea on they were swapping stories it was really just this wonderful time and then around 8 pm the sun started to set at which point this huge group just stopped and enjoyed this beautiful sunset and then once the sun had gone down there were two kids that were there on this trip and so they were put to bed in their tent and then the remaining 10 adults just kind of hung out by the fire and enjoyed each other’s company and it was actually during this second half of the night that norbert and miroslav finally really got a chance to just chat with each other so for about an hour they were talking to each other and lydia is just watching this happen and she couldn’t be happier this is like the perfect ending to this trip and then around 9pm norbert stands up lydia sees him stand up and he tells the group he’s going to run back to his tent which was a ways away from the campfire and he was going to get his camera and so lydia said okay no problem and she remembers watching him walk off into the distance because when you’re at the campfire if you’re looking away from the campfire everything is pitch black in that direction and so she watches him disappear into the darkness and then she and her brother and everyone else just kind of turn back towards the campfire and then all she remembers about what happens next is she heard a whistling sound and at first it was very faint but it started to get very very loud and when it got loud she tried to kind of figure out where it was but before she could suddenly something hit her in the face predominantly hit her in the nose and as soon as it did she went blind she went deaf and then she felt herself on the ground and she has no idea what’s going on and all she can remember thinking is oh my god something horrible has happened to me i might die i don’t know what’s happening but i might die and so she started praying for herself to survive whatever was happening to her and then her hearing started to come back just a little bit her vision was still totally blurred she could only kind of tell where the fire was because it was bright but her hearing it started to come back and that’s when she heard moaning coming from somewhere near her and so she’s thinking okay whatever horrible thing has happened to me has happened to other people too and so instead of just praying for herself she began praying for everyone who is at this campsite and so as her hearing is getting louder and louder and she’s hearing more and more moaning and crying happening all around her she suddenly hears her husband screaming her name her vision is still gone but she knows it’s him and he lands right behind her and he grabs her and he’s just repeating her name over and over and over again and then lydia manages to kind of choke out to her husband what happened and there’s a pause and then norbert says to her it’s bad it’s really bad it would turn out their campsite was on a battlefield from world war one and buried underneath the soil right under their fire pit was an unexploded bomb from world war one meaning for over a hundred years countless campers have arrived at this campsite and lit fires on top of this bomb that they couldn’t see and each fire gradually eroded the outer metal casing of this explosive until finally that night in september with lydia and 11 of her loved ones nearby their little fire finally was it it pushed through that last little bit of the casing and it ignited the bomb and it detonated that whistling that she heard was the sound of the fire finally cutting through that casing and being exposed to the fire and then that thing that struck her in the face that hit her right on the nose that was almost certainly a piece of the bomb itself so shrapnel that was cutting through her face and then the moaning she heard was primarily her brother who was right next to her lydia would be gravely wounded but she would survive as for her brother and another man who was not named they would not survive here is a picture that was taken of the group literally minutes before this bomb detonated.
krpoems23 