<< When we got to the hospital, we were met by a scene of unimaginable carnage. As we stepped off the truck a man (who I presumed to be a doctor, but turned out later to be an over keen local politician) grabbed me by the hand and led us into the hospital, saying there were two dead tourists there. I didn’t have time to say no or think about it, and Helen followed just behind me.
There were literally hundreds of dead bodies filling the entire floor space of the hospital, with thin white sheets covering them. Nearly all were local people, many were women and children. Some had rigormortis already setting in, with arms poking out at unnatural angles. It was so horrific that we couldn’t really take it in. I tried to disassociate my emotions from what my eyes were seeing; it seemed the only thing I could do to avoid breaking down there and then.
The man uncovered the first tourist body. It was a young white woman with blond hair, with a horrible deathly visage. I immediately thought that it must be Claire, who we knew had died next to our place, although I couldn’t be sure, as I’d never seen her face before. I believe in the end it turned out that I was right.
The other tourist was a young girl with mounds of flowing black hair. We both knew for sure that this was Isabella, a five-year-old girl from Nature Resort who we had been sharing a swimming pool with the day before. Luckily I didn’t see her face. Just her shape and the hair was enough for me to know who it was. This was the most tragic part of the day.
We wandered round the hospital, looking at piles of corpses, and talking to the few wounded westerners there. No one had seen our friends. Then, just as we’d looked everywhere and were about to leave, we heard a scream of “Tom!!” over a wall to our right. And there was Candy drying and reaching out, across the wall to us. We both rushed around to meet each other, and me Helen, Matt and Candy all embraced one another. It was an incredible moment; really words cannot describe the euphoria and relief we felt.
We had all started to assume that the other couple were dead….and now we had all found each other, it was unbelievable luck that we had all survived, and without any serious injuries to boot.
Someone, something somewhere had surely been looking after us….either that or we were SUPREMELY LUCKY!
