Family will never forget tidal wave
By Mary Anderson
Staff Writer, The Courier-Tribune
ASHEBORO - They were ordinary people caught in an extraordinary experience
that will change their lives forever.
The Hall family - three teachers, an events planner, a stay-at-home mom,
a student and a toddler - had rendevouzed in Thailand from China, Slovenia
and the United States for a Christmas vacation in Koh Lanta.
Then the earthquake-spawned tsunami that devastated the Thailand coast
the day after Christmas hit their resort area.
Suspense followed. Finally, on Dec. 30 at 4 p.m., their family in Asheboro
heard the news they had been waiting for in an email from a stranger to
a sister, Sue Routh: "The Halls are all OK."
More than the water rushing into the hotels and bungalows, more than
the wave retreating and sucking everything in its path into the ocean, more
than the panic of trying to find each other, the Halls say the memory they
will carry with them is the look of despair and hopelessness in the eyes
of the survivors as they searched for loved ones.
"None of us will ever think of life in the same way again,"
Christina Hall, back in North Carolina, said in a telephone interview on
Wednesday. "Since I got back, I haven't been able to watch the news.
The images are too disturbing."
She said the tsunami was a catastrophe of such magnitude, people who
were not there cannot begin to grasp the terror and devastation.
Christina and her mother, Karen Hall, who responded to questions via
email from her home in China, said they won't forget the hopeless look on
the faces of people searching for loved ones, people who had cried until
they had no more tears and wouldn't make eye contact.
Christina said it's more than an image: She is dealing with feelings
and sensations that come back to her, like the sensation of running through
water and hearing people crying all around her.
Karen wrote, "The first three days were very emotional. I would
find myself crying at times, especially after reading emails from concerned
family and friends. We can see the China Sea from our apartment and the
first time my eyes fell on the water, I cried."
Karen said she, her husband, Tim, and son, Jeremy, are improving as they
get back into their normal activities.
Their older son, Timothy, his wife, Kristy, and 14-month old son, Clay,
returned to Timothy's international teaching post in Slovenia. Tim and Karen
Hall, also international teachers, are working near Hong Kong on the China
Sea. Tim taught in North Carolina public schools for 20 years. When he retired
in Montgomery County 10 years ago, he joined QSI, an international teachers
group.
Kristy, in her first email, said she was haunted by the memory of "the
look in people's eyes when they were searching for their loved ones."
The greatest need, Christina said, is for counselors - to help people
through their grief, the rebuilding of their lives and to give them hope.
"We can supply the physical needs, but the country doesn't have
counselors like we do. They need help from pastors, missionaries and any
therapist who can possibly go," Christina said, adding that if she
had the money, she would go back to do what she could.
"We are so fortunate to have jobs that pay us, maybe we could give
up a luxury we take for granted for the next few weeks and donate the money
(to the relief effort). Fifty dollars a month is a good income for a family
in Thailand. We have to recognize how blessed we are."
Karen Hall said the greatest need, first of all, is prayer.
"As tourism is their main source of income, they need to know that
the world hasn't forsaken them," she said. "When we told the Thai
people that we would come back, the tears would shine in their eyes. Of
course, they need financial aid to restore their businesses."
Christina said they talked about going snorkeling that day, but were
relaxing and never got a definite plan together. They were watching a movie
when they heard the noise and people screaming. It took several minutes
to realize what was happening.
A family of unshakable faith, none of them ever felt in personal danger.
There was one moment of near panic, Karen wrote, when the first wave came
and they didn't know where Timothy and his family were.
"Tim ran to their bungalow through the water crying out Timothy's
name without thinking of the danger he was in," she said. "However,
we never felt our lives were in danger."
The Halls had wasted no time going to higher ground, where they were
later reunited.
Christina said she was never afraid.
"I knew something was wrong, but I had confidence that God would
protect us. We had seen Timothy and Kristy and knew they were safe,"
she said.
As wounded people climbed and were carried up the mountain, the Halls
had one first-aid kit and did what they could to help.
"My mom was so heroic, helping everyone she could, but there were
so many injured," Christina said. "My younger brother, Jeremy,
ran back through the rising water to get all our shoes. We couldn't have
made the climb without shoes. The Thai men who held on to the tourists -
so many heroic acts."
To Karen, the most heroic act was the two Thai men who "literally
held on to a 72-year-old British lady so that she was not carried out to
sea."
Karen felt anything but heroic.
"I couldn't get the sand out of the wounds. We had nothing to treat
the injured except for a minimal first-aid kit," she wrote. "The
head wounds were very difficult as it was hard to see how severe they were.
We were thankful when the small truck would arrive to take the most seriously
injured to the hospital."
The injured and the Halls and other helpers never knew each other's names,
but they will forever be a part of each other's lives.
Christina returned to North Carolina on Jan. 3 to go back to work at
King's Park International Church in Durham. From Bangkok, she had flown
to Atlanta to visit the parents of her boyfriend, now her fiancé.
Barry Williams, a light engineer who lives in San Francisco, proposed and
she accepted.
"What a way to announce my engagement," she said, laughing
at the irony of the joy at the end of the trauma.
"I have always had a very keen sense that God has a purpose for
my life. This experience is something that made me stronger and more reliant
on God," Christina said.
Copyright 2002, Stephens Media Group
|