Last evening, I called my mum up to ask her something and heard sounds of wailing and howling in the background. My mum's voice was choked too.

Her neghbours, who have two daughters, one 17, the other 12, had gone for a holiday for two days by the sea. The country where I am from has recently seen a cyclone. Anyway, it was a perfectly calm day yesterday and the four (mum dad and the two girls) were standing splashing around in ankle deep water. Suddenly they saw a huge wave approaching and ran a little further back.

When the wave receded, the mum and two kids saw that the dad was nowhere in sight. They screamed for help, but nobody was around. The day passed, searches went on. The body was retrieved around the evening by people around.

The kids weren't told. they were brought home on a bus being told that daddy was very very critically ill. They entered the housing complex and saw 200 odd people standing in silence. And daddy lying there, dead.


And they screamed. and screamed. And have been screaming since.


I got a scholarship yesterday, you know. It means just NOTHING to me. Just thought of sharing this with you guys. Happiness is so dreadfully transient.

Words cannot describe it and so I'm not going to try...

I hope you're OK as I know you're over here on your own and away from home.

I truly feel for the family and all involved as this would be so, so devastating and as I said words cannot describe how much so.

Things like this do put things in perspective and your reaction shows that you have great compassion.

Look after yourself.

I am so so sorry bug. I really feel for you, your family and family neighbours.
I am not sure what to say, except I am so terribly sorry.

Oh Bug, I cannot say how sorry we are. It is truly terrible what has happened in India and Bangladesh with Cyclone Aila. I just hope that you and your family can get through this awful time with the help of family and friends and that you can get some peace eventually...

Thanks all. I havent been to India in a long time now, and it's eventually going to decrease I guess... but they say it's been bad... of course nobody in the heart of an elite middle class metropolis was *really* hit by this... it was just another family holiday by the sea...holiday turned nightmare..

There's hardly any point in discussing that a holiday by the sea after disturbed weather conditions was not a good idea, but there's no point in saying this.

I think the kids around there are completely shocked. My cousins (the one in Year 10 had her results declared yesterday, she returned home waving a marksheet with 99 in physics, and 97 in biology, just a little upset that history was an 80....and entered the playground to see her friends's dad lying there and her friend screaming).

So you know, it is like... 5 mins ago she was sad that her grades in history were not a 90 percent. And then as the car entered the area, it was like "grades?? what??"

Phew.

Oh Bug. I'm so sorry to read this, how tragic. I can't begin to imagine how it must feel for them, or rather I wouldn't want to imagine that - absolutely terrible, it really is the stuff of nightmares for that poor family and those poor girls seeing their father like that. You are right, happiness is so very transient, again getting results and the awful jolt of persepective hitting. I feel so sad for you and your family. I hope that soon, when the shock of this has worn off, you will be able to gain some pleasure from your scholarship and the fact that your hard work is paying off - I am genuinely delighted for you in that, but as you say, sometimes things like that just pale into insignificance when a tragedy of this magnitude hits people you know and care for.
((((((((((((((((((hugs bug)))))))))))))))))))))))))) thinking of you xxxx

sorry to hear about the tragedy. Regards satchi

That really is awful, what a tragedy :(
How sad for the family to lose their father. :(

i can empathesise on how you must be feeling, when events like these happen, one feels like nothing else matters. :-(