SA family shattered by tsunami

2004-12-29 12:41

Marthinus van Vuuren

The tsunamis in which his wife and thousand of other people died were worse than his army conscription time on the Angolan border.

This is what Ian Coetzee, 35, told his father, pastor Danie Coetzee, after his wife, Daphne, 35, died in a tsunami in Phuket.

The Coetzees, from Poort View on the West Rand, were relaxing on the beach with their two sons, Dean, 12, and Michael, 9, on Sunday - the fourth day of their holiday - when the giant wave swept down on them, pastor Coetzee said from his house in Little Falls on the West Rand on Tuesday.

"When the water started receding further and further, they filmed it with their video camera. When they realised that danger was approaching, Ian shouted at the boys to run to a building. He and Daphne followed them."

He focused on the children

When Coetzee stumbled in the water, the boys wanted to turn back, but he shouted at them again that they had to run.

When he reached the building, his wife wasn't there.

"Ian is convinced that if he had focussed on Daphne, the children would have drowned," pastor Coetzee said. "His instinct was to focus on the children."

Coetzee helped his sons onto the roof where they remained until the water receded.

"He phoned at 08:45 on Sunday morning and said: ' Dad, pray for us. There was a huge wave. I have the two children, but Daphne is gone.' He was willing to hire a helicopter to look for his wife, but it was getting dark."

Coetzee found his wife's body at the international hospital on Monday morning after he hired a man with a motorcycle to take him to all the hospitals on the island.

"It is very difficult for the family. Your children are there, but you are here. You cannot hold them to give them moral support."

Dean and Michael, pupils at Horison Primary School, are apparently badly shocked by their mother's death.

"They sound very upset," their grandfather said on Tuesday. "How will they ever be able to face the sea again"

Beautiful dreams

"All that is carrying us through this is the strength to know that everything is as it should be even though it doesn't look that way."

Sonja Fourie, Daphne's sister, said on Tuesday that the family was "devastated".

"She had such beautiful dreams for the future. We will have to ensure that these come true."

Daphne is also survived by her father, Rassie Erasmus, six sisters and a brother.

- Beeld