At a School in Russia, a World of Emptiness

Seth Mydans

BESLAN, Russia - Every morning, Vova Tumayev sets the breakfast table for three - husband, wife and adored 10-year-old daughter. Nobody eats. Mr. Tumayev sits alone for a little while, then clears the table.

His wife, Zinaida, and his daughter, Madina, died in the seizure of a schoolhouse here at the beginning of September, two of the hundreds of victims of an attack linked to the war in Chechnya.

There is nothing Mr. Tumayev can do - no ritual, no act of mourning that can begin to fill the emptiness their loss has left behind.

At night, he said, he sleeps in his daughter's bed.

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Posted: 10/1/04