Mom had to chose between kids
2004-12-30 09:07
Sydney - It's the stuff of many parents' nightmares, but was all too real for Australian mother Jillian Searle.
Swamped by the devastating tsunami beside the swimming pool of a Phuket hotel, Searle was struggling to stay afloat holding her five-year-old son Lachie and 20-month-old baby Blake when she realised she could not save them both.
Searle said: "I knew that if I held on to both, we would all die. I pleaded with a woman to take hold of Lachie.
"When we saw her later, she said, 'I'm really sorry I had to let go of him'."
The father, Brad, watched the horrific drama from the balcony off their first-floor room where he had gone to fetch a diaper for the baby.
'Lachie, unable to swim'
He said: "I saw the second wave came and I knew my son was still down there ... it was the most horrible time of my life."
Miraculously Lachie, who cannot swim, was able to cling to a pole in the hotel lobby, keeping his head above water until the raging seas subsided.
Lachie later to his father said: "I cried for mum for a long time and then I was quiet."
It took the couple hours of frantic searching to find Lachie, who was in the arms of a security guard.
Searle said: "We are just so lucky to walk away with the small children I've got, one of whom can't even swim and is petrified of water even the pool at home.
"She is the one who is a little baby. I just can't believe they are still here."