Linae Tiede

My family owns a beautiful cabin in Oakley, Utah.

The sound of the river, the horses that are down in the pasture, the birds, it's absolutely heaven on earth to me.

My mom had given it a name, Tita's Tranquility, because of the serenity and peace

It was winter of 1990.

I was 20 years old and my little sister was 16.

I have great memories of spending Christmas with my mom and dad.

My mom even had our Christmas stockings hung under the fireplace mantel, ready for Santa to come.

Three days before Christmas, our family had to finish up our Christmas shopping and head back up to our family cabin.

My mom and Grams and I arrived at the cabin first and my hands were freezing.

It was a bitter cold winter that year.

I asked my mom to hurry and unlock the door.

I needed to run in and run my hands under some water and I would be right back down to help her.

I got to the top of the stairs and saw a gray flash go behind the refrigerator.

And the first thought that popped in my mind was, oh, a cousin's here already and was going to jump out and say boo.

It didn't turn out that way.

Behind the refrigerator came a frizzy-headed man in a gray sweatshirt with his pistol pointed at me.

I assumed that he would want to just rob us and be on his way.

As soon as my mom came to the top of the stairs out from the back bedroom, another robber with thick Coke bottle glasses on was pointing a gun at my mother.

My mom was saying to him, what is it you want?

Why are you here?