A heavy toll for Syria's parents

 A Kenyan proverb goes: "When elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers."
The civil war that rages in Syria has threatened the wellbeing of innocent people in the Arab state for more than three years, and as well as depriving many Syrian youths of their dreams, it has deprived many others of their lives, leaving loved ones in immeasurable pain.
"STRAIGHT A" STUDENT
High school student Raghad Arabi was a standout among her peers before she was killed in a powerful blast near the capital Damascus. Her family are left with little but memories and a piece of paper she'd filled with goals she will now never achieve.
The 18-year-old was a "straight A" student, and was "committed to high morals," her mother recounted to Xinhua.
It has been a year since she died, though her mother is as grief-stricken as she was the day she lost her.
"She was calm and had plans for her future... you can tell from her pictures that her expressions were a mixture of innocence and self confidence," her mother said, her eyes tearing up at talk of her daughter.
Arabi had spent the last three months of her life studying hard for her high school exams in order to get into her preferred college. She had written a future resume, imagining what she could have achieved by the year 2020. Now that hopeful resume, along with her patriotic drawings, are mementoes for her parents to grieve over.
On the day of her last exam, Arabi told her sister that she wanted to go and buy a perfume from a store nearby.
"I named that day the 'black day.' It was Aug. 6, 2013, on the eve of (Muslim feast) Eid al-Fitr," said her mother. "She went out to buy some stuff to prepare for the occasion. 20 minutes following her departure, we heard a powerful explosion and I saw smoke billowing in the area nearby.
"Immediately I grabbed my phone and dialed her number but there was no response. I knew that something terribly wrong had happened."
A car bomb parked outside the perfume store had gone off as her daughter entered, killing her along with many others.
Sadly, Arabi did not know she had passed her exams with grades high enough to secure entry for any college she'd desire.
SOFT HAIRDRESSER TO HARDCORE SOLDIER
The crisis in Syria turned Arabi's cousin, Tammam Jarbou, from a soft hairdresser into a hardcore soldier, fighting against the rebels.
All those who loved the handsome 23-year-old spoke of how much of an honorable young man he was, helping those in need and being good to his family and relatives, who all live close to each other in the Damascus suburb of Jaramana.
The Syrian flag that shrouded his coffin when his body was received by his family now hangs at the entrance of his family's four-story building. His mother still wears black and upon looking into her eyes, one can tell how many tears they have shed over the premature death of her son. Pictures of him fill the walls of their house.
"He was a hardworking man. His dream was to open his own salon, to get married and to live in peace as any other man of his age," Jarbou's mother told Xinhua.
But Jarbou's dream was shattered when, while fighting alongside his comrades against the rebels, a rocket struck his position at Morek in the central province of Hama. He was killed instantly.
PROMISING FOOTBALL STAR
That day, 15-year-old Fahed Nasrallah's acclaimed karate techniques didn't stand a chance against a shell, leaving his father in deep shock over the loss of his son, the youngest among six other sons and the apple of his eye.
The teen was a sports enthusiast who had loved all kinds of disciplines, but excelled in karate and football. By all accounts, he had a promising future in that domain as many local football clubs had shown an interest in utilizing his skills. Nasrallah was also renowned for being a sociable person who used to help out his neighbors and friends -- a personality trait that was apparent even on the day he was killed, encouraging others to get to safety just moments before the fatal shell.
Nasrallah's father said everything in the house now reminds him of his son, who lost his life last May when he was out to fetch bread for his family.
"He was the youngest among my six boys and the sweetheart of everyone here. He was in the ninth grade and was really good at school. He attended karate and swimming courses, but his favorite sport was football," Nasrallah's father told Xinhua.
"One day he woke up early and went out to bring some bread to the house. Upon leaving the house he saw some of our neighbors in the alley. He told them to get inside their homes due to the sound of mortar shells that were landing nearby. After warning the neighbors, he moved a couple of steps ahead, where a mortar shell struck and killed him instantly."
According to a United Nations (UN) report from July 2013, the latest count available, the death toll from the Syrian civil war had reached over 100,000. The UN stopped updating the death toll citing its inability to authenticate the sources of information.
However, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a watchdog group that relies on an activist network on the ground, recently provided an updated figure that placed the death toll at more than 160,000, including combatants and noncombatants.