It’s been well over a decade now since the infamous tsunami that destroyed a huge part of Indonesia and Thailand in December of 2004, killing more than 230,000 people and injuring countless others. The pictures stunned the whole world, bringing aid and volunteers to help in the aftermath.
Among the victims was a little girl called Raudhatul Jannah. She and her brother Arif Pratama Rangkuti were separated from their family and washed away in the violent waters. Their parents were devastated. They’d lost both of their children.
For more than a month they searched frantically for the two kids, posting notices and digging through rubble, but in vain. They both seemed to have been taken by the flood.
Or that’s what they thought.
Then in the middle of 2014, a good decade later, a relative saw a girl on the street who looked just like Raudhatul. He could hardly believe it and went to ask. In fact, the girl had washed up on a nearby island after the tsunami to be discovered by a fisherman, whose mother ended up raising the child. The now 14-year-old could still vaguely remember being torn away from her family and landing later on a strange beach. At last the pieces of her story were about to come together.
When her parents came to pick her up, they knew. This was definitely their daughter. They couldn’t stop the tears from flowing when they could finally hold her again, safe and sound.
What a gift, after such a tragedy. Now Raudhatul lives with her parents again, who hope that her survival is a sign that her brother might also still be alive somewhere.
