January 6, 2005 6:52 AM

Can there be anything worse?

Searching for the children

It’s every parent’s nightmare- losing your child but not having the certainty of knowing if that child is alive or dead. For the parents of children lost to Southeast Asia’s tsunami, it’s got to be a terrible thing to have to somehow cope with. Can any of us understand what Anders Ericsson and thousands like him are going through?

PHUKET, Thailand (CNN) — Anders Ericsson still remembers the last words his 2-year-old son, Ragnar, spoke before being washed away in the waves of Thailand’s tsunami.

“Daddy, I’m scared. Please help.” Ericsson’s voice breaks as he tells of the tragedy.

He is among many anguished parents searching for their children after the earthquake-triggered tsunamis swept through coastal communities from Thailand to East Africa on December 26, killing more than 155,000 people.

Ericsson, visiting from Norway, struggled to maintain his grip on his son when the waves slammed into the resort where his family was staying in Khao Lak.

Debris floated everywhere, and “the water was crazy,” he said. “You were up, you were down.”

Ragnar was torn from his father’s grip.

“Since he was smaller than me, he just drifted away,” Ericsson said.

The boy has not been seen since, but his father vows to find him dead or alive.

It is easy to feel safe and protected here in my warm house, but I live half a mile from the Gulf of Mexico. What is to prevent the same sort of tragedy from happening here? Though I try to imagine what it might be like, to walk a mile in someone else’s shoes, I’m not at all certain that is possible in this case. The sheer magnitude of the death and destruction is something I find impossible to grasp. Combine that with the loss of a child…no, I can safely say that I have NO idea how truly terrible a feeling that must be.

blog comments powered by Disqus

Technorati

Technorati search

» Blogs that link here

About this Entry

This page contains a single entry by Jack Cluth published on January 6, 2005 6:52 AM.

Recognizing the real power behind the throne was the previous entry in this blog.

Creating your own justification is the next entry in this blog.

Find recent content on the main index or look in the archives to find all content.

Contact Me

Powered by Movable Type 5.12