Daughter lost in the tsunami will return home one day, hopes Renu

General News - Saturday December 22, 2007

@THAILAND

A mother lives in hope

Daughter lost in the tsunami will return home one day, hopes Renu

Story and photo by ACHATAYA CHUENNIRAN

It has been three years since the tsunami devastated the southern part of Thailand, claiming more than 5,000 lives, but a mother who lost her five-year-old daughter in the disaster refuses to abandon hope that her girl might return.

Renu Thongkrua, the 42-year-old mother and owner of a food shop in Ban Bang Muang village of Takua Pa district, said she missed the girl deeply.

Only hard work can make her and her husband Chalong forget the sorrow - but only temporarily.

She remembers the tragic day when Jantakarn, or "Nong May", then five, and her eight-year-old sister Darawadee left home with their aunt to visit their grandmother at Koh Kaw Khao in the same district. They also planned to make merit at a temple on a small island, 15 minutes off Takua Pa in the Andaman Sea.

Mrs Renu said she did not go with them as she had to go to the Takua Pa market. She learned about the killer waves while at the market.

"It was confusing. People kept shouting and warning others not to go to the Khao Lak area, saying there was huge flooding there. I thought, 'why is it flooding, there's been no rain'," she recalled. Then she watched television and understood what had happened.

When she rushed home she found her two daughters and their aunt were missing. She kept praying that they were safe.

Later on her eldest daughter and the grandmother, both suffering bad injuries, were found and sent home.

The aunt, Praneet, went missing and her body was recovered in February 2005.

Mrs Renu and her husband stopped working and travelled to sites where deceased victims were kept, and they looked at one after another, but could not find their youngest daughter.

They returned home with broken hearts. She said she is still waiting for her daughter, even though the chances of seeing her again are slim.

"I still keep all her belongings, clothes and toys, in their places. I won't give them to anyone. I am afraid that when she comes back she will be upset if she does not see her things," she said.

"I wish she would tell me in my dreams if she is dead. But deep in my heart, I hope someone found and adopted her. One day she will be home. This is my hope," said Mrs Renu with tears in her eyes.

"I have tried to work hard so that I may forget, but when I see kids of the same age I am devastated," she said.

Bangkok Post