The Hindu : Karnataka News : He saved a life even when death stared at him

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Dec 31, 2004

Karnataka

Karnataka

He saved a life even when death stared at him

By Vidyashree Amaresh

S. Albert and (Inset) Regina. — Photo: K. Gopinathan

BANGALORE, DEC. 30. Every victim of the tsunami tragedy has a heart-wrenching tale to narrate. Perhaps, the intensity differs. S. Albert escaped the monster waves that washed away his wife, S. Regina.

The couple from Thomas town at Lingarajapuram in Bangalore had been to Chennai to get the head of their grandson tonsured at Velankanni Church.

Anticipating a bright sunny morning, as the weather seemed to indicate, the two went to the beach.

Some 15 minutes after they were there, they were alerted by a fisherwoman who sensed some kind of danger when she saw the rising sea waves.

At once Albert (62) caught hold of his wife's hand and started running for his life. "As my wife is hefty, she was unable to run.

She fell down on the sand, and in a few minutes, waves as high as 20 feet hit us with a tremendous force," he said.

"And then, in seconds I saw my wife being washed away. I could not even scream for help. The waves were rolling me along with the sand and I was getting bruised all over my body. A little of swimming that I knew helped me fight these terrible waves," said the retired Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. employee. There was mud all over and he was unable to see anything.

All that he had in mind was the painful realisation that his wife was dead.

Initially, he wondered why he had to survive. But then he mustered courage to fight the dreaded waves that had consumed the life of his beloved.

The transistor he had hung on his wrist got entangled to a log. Realising its presence, he held on to it tightly. He suddenly saw a catamaran floating nearby and got on to it.

Just then, he heard a teenage girl scream for help.

One of her legs was cut and she was hysterically fighting the waves.

Mr. Albert pulled her over to the catamaran. By then the intensity of the waves had subsided and they moved to the shore.

"For three days we are searching for Regina's body, but we could not recover it. There were hundreds of bodies lying on the seashore, and the rescue teams were recovering more," he said fighting back his tears.

He was unable to stick on to that place for too long because the stench was unbearable.

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