You're listening to a MoMA Mia podcast. Mama Miya acknowledges the traditional owners of land and waters that this podcast is recorded on. Hello, Omeya. Friedman and the team at Mamma Maya are bringing you over one hundred hours of the best of the best from across our award winning podcasts to give you the hot pod Summer of your dreams.
Here at No Filter, we have selected the very best stories of human resilience, of escaping from colts and tsunamis, of surviving in prison, surviving a landslide, surviving a broken.
Heart, and so much more.
Today, I'm bringing you the story of Sarah Isles that we first aired a few years ago. Sarah survived what we often think of as unsurvivable a tsunami. The Boxing Day tsunami in two thousand and four took the lives of two hundred and twenty seven thousand people, and Sarah survived it. She is such a survivor that she even went on the TV show Survivor, And as we near the twenty year anniversary of that terrifying day, we thought that we would revisit Sarah's story in her own words.
Here's Sarah Isles.
I felt the vibration of this building giving away on my feet and I knew it was then. That was the moment I knew I was in trouble and I had to leap. It still gives me goosebops just thinking about it.
For Mama Maya, I'm Meya Friedman, and you're listening to No Filter, a podcast where I have counter conversations with
fascinating people. Do you remember what you were doing on Boxing Day morning in two thousand and four, Well, you probably don't, but when I say the word tsunami, it might jog your memory a little bit, because that was no ordinary Boxing day, not for the people who were watching the news around the world, and certainly not for the people who were caught up in that devastating tragedy. My guest today, Sarah Ayle, was on a beach in Sri Lanka on Boxing Day in two thousand and four.
She was putting on a mask. She was about to go snorkeling with her business partner, who also happened to be her ex boyfriend. But they were really close and they'd gone on this holiday together so that she could meet some of his family. And on that morning, while they were preparing to go snorkeling. Life as she knew it suddenly changed forever. And I know that sounds melodramatic, you know, the day her life changed forever, But it wasn't even the day. It was really in a matter
of moments. And I know that I was always so curious and fascinated. Sounds like the wrong word, but I wondered and I imagine just what it was like as that tsunami took hold. In the countries that were affected by it, almost a quarter of a million people lost their lives on that day across Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand. The Boxing Day tsunami was caused by an earthquake in the Indian Ocean, and experts have said that it had the energy of twenty three thousand Hiroshima type
atomic bombs. So what was it like on the ground? What was it like when that tsunami hit? The astonishing thing is that Sarah has lived to tell the tale. She survived and now would you believe she's going on Australian Survivor To push herself even more, I invited Sarah into the Mama Mia podcast studio for an incredibly candid conversation and one that I guarantee will have you leaning
so far in to hear what she has to say. Sarah, I want to start with you getting on the plane to Sri Lanka back in December two thousand and four. Can you tell me a bit about your life back then? Oh?
Back then, I was early thirties and I had a cleaning company. At the time. We had a couple of hundred staff and life was, I guess, fairly busy. You could say, who did you run your business with? I ran the business with. I was a director. We had two directors, and my business partner at the time was Suji. He was a managing director. Yeah, and three of us managed it. Were you guys dating not at that time, No, but we had done in the past. We were together
for eleven years. I met him when I just turned seventeen. I think, yeah, how did you meet? I had a Japanese student living with me and she went on a bus trip to Victor Harbor and I went along with her and he was on there. So, gosh, it was a long time ago and I was so young.
So you guys were together for eleven years, that's a long time. At what point in your relationship. Did you decide to go into business together.
Oh, it was a few years down the track. I was at school at the time, so I finished school. I did a year of nursing. No, it wasn't for me, and took a year or so working out what I wanted to do. And while I was studying, we started this cleaning business, cleaning for someone else, and decided, well, why are we working for someone else. We could do this on our own. So we cashed in some cans, as you do when you're cleaning.
Some actual can yeah, yeah, like recycling can.
Yes, yes, my car was always full of cans from bins. So we'd get the money from that, I'd put it in the bank and I don't know how many years it took us, but we bought a vacuum cleaner with the can money it's just insane mott bucket and some chemicals and put some letters underdoors commercial premises and said we're keen, we like to clean, We're good at what we do. So we started from there.
You'd built that business together to a really big size, I mean two hundred staff.
Yeah.
Yeah.
At the time of the tsunami, it was rapidly growing. At that point.
So how long before you left for Sri Lanka had you sort of ended your romantic relationship and kept the business one goal.
It was a few years, So we were together for eleven and at the time of the tsunami it was fourteen years. So it look, oh, you know, you cling onto familiar things when you're young. And we weren't compatible for a long time, not romantically, but we were compatible in business. We just had different skill sets. I was a people person. He was kind of a broad thinker, where I was more a detailed person. And the other director that came on board, he was good at financials
and accounting and stuff. So we sort of pulled our skills and we were good at what we did. And yeah, you were obviously.
Still good friends if you were going on holiday together or was it a working trip.
I wasn't really a working trip. Look, I'd moved on, but he, I think, always felt regret at not taking me to meet his family and to see his country. So I guess in my head, I thought, well, for him to just get over this and move on, We'll go and I get a free trip out of it and get to see some country. And yeah, he can just not have to feel guilty about not taking me.
Had he lived in Australia for a long time.
He had he came to Australia. Gosh, when was it, probably nineteen ninety so he was well, he loved Australia. He was sort of a converted Ozzie and he integrated because he got an Ozzy girlfriend. But I guess, yeah, all his family were back home, so so what.
Was the plan for that holiday? You got on the plane, what were you going to do when you got to Sri Lanka.
We had some time in Colombo with his family, and we actually went for a friend's wedding at the time, so she was getting married. So sort of got myself a sari when I was in Colomba and had it fitted and never got to wore it. We're it's sorry. So yeah, and then we had I guess an itinery around the country up in the hill country, the tea estates. He had friends in sort of high places everywhere. So we had a great couple of weeks which was really really nice.
How did Boxing day start for you?
We were actually in a hotel, a big, solid hotel in a town called Hikkadua, which was a few k's from Gaul, and had we remained there we would have been fine. But we had such a great time the day before snorkling that we thought, right, let's go to Unawatuna early in the morning before the sun and the tourists came out, because I was really sun burnt from the day before in my back. So the plan was to go there, do some snorkeling, enjoy and visit Gaul
on the way back. So yeah, we had our breakfast in the hotel with a lot of other people and got in the car with our driver who'd been driving us around the country.
Was it just the two of you and the driver?
Yeah, yea, and he was a lovely guy. Yeah, his name was Cecirah. And we drove through Gaul and drove on to Nawatuna and parked the car, and yeah, things changed pretty quickly.
How quickly did they change? I mean, when you hear the word tsunami, you imagine a really I imagine a really big wave. But in a lot of the accounts I've heard people talk about the opposite of that, like the tide going out. When was it for you that you realize something strange was going on?
Well, it was really interesting because looking out what I saw at the time, we'd literally just driven onto this beach, hadn't seen it before, stripped off, and we were ready to go snorkeling, as I said, But in looking out of the ocean, the horizon was gone. And when I think about it, the water was just higher than it should have been.
What do you mean the horizon was gone?
Well, there was, I guess there was just a mass of turbulent water, but it didn't look like a wave, and I didn't realize that I couldn't see the horizon. But when I think back to that photo, in my mind, I think, yeah, Sarah, there's no horizon. There is a mass of water that you're not understanding. So what did you do? Well, basically, I was completely sort of confused. I didn't realize at that point that I was in any danger.
Were you in the water or were you on the beach?
Well, we're on the beach. We rocked up to a diving shop and he sort of saw the wave before me and he said, I don't think I can reach and I said, well, hold on, I'll have a look. So I've looked out and I've seen this picture and turned back to him, and beyond Suji was the car that was on the road. Its tires were getting lapped with water. So I've said, just tell the drive, tell
Sarah to shift the car. It's getting wet. And where we were, we were standing on sand with tables and chairs for teas and coffees, and they were suddenly starting to get wet.
So we were as the water was risy.
Well it was just dribbling in at this point, so we were shifting these chairs and tables, just trying to keep them dry.
For the owner of the dive shop exactly.
And I was here and the owner was probably about a meter away doing the same thing, and Suji would have only been two three meters and we were all sort of shifting these chairs. It was strange. It was really odd.
It sounds like it was a really slow door realization.
Well, it really took me a long time. I was just completely confused. So I just happened to have stairs in front of me, mud brickstairs. It was well, I've walked up the steps, and as I've walked up the steps, the water level is following my feet and I'm still baffled. It took a long time for the penny to drop with this lady. I just and I've looked over and the car with the door open. My poor driver had obviously got out and ran was just being sort of washed away.
Were people panicking and screaming?
No, it was completely silent apart from this swirling sound of water.
Were there lots of people around or not?
Where we were, there are only a few. And as I've seen the car drift away, my instinct was, oh, my god, my camera's going to get wet. And I hope the cars ensured. I still didn't understand what was happening. I feel so bad because thinking about that Cecia was in the process of drowning, but I was worried about my camera. I think because the door, the door of the car was open, I think he'd decided to run
for it. So yeah, I kept climbing these stairs and I got to the landing and I saw a bed in a doorway.
Where were you like in a hotel. It's a diving shop, so you were inside in a building more of.
A hut, a mud brick hut. And I've seen a bed and I've thought, my god, Sarah, you're trespassing on someone's property. This is just you know, you're doing the wrong thing. And as I've walked along, I've seen in the window two men, one elderly gentleman and one younger, and I've seen through the window that the water level was just there was just a massive water outside. And the younger guy was helping his father out of the window. And his dad would have been maybe in his seventies
or eighties, and he only had one leg. So I wanted to say, don't put him out, because he's going to die, but nothing came out of my mouth. I was just watching there in disbelief. And look, at that point in time, I felt I felt the vibration of this building giving away on my feet, and I knew it was then that was the moment that I knew I was in trouble and I had to leap. Still gives me goosebumps just thinking about it.
Where did leap? Where?
I made a beeline to the end of the little balcony. I threw my snorkel and mask in the water and that shot off like a rocket and I've just jumped into the water.
So in a matter of it seems like a minute, two minutes suddenly. I mean, did you have the word tsunami in your flood? Probably it was.
Yeah, Well I was thinking, well, at that point, I was just so focused on surviving. I wasn't It was just water. And to this day, if I feel vibrations in my feet, like at the airport when a plane takes off, or at the gym if some big dude drops, I feel like running. I just get me out of here.
Something is going to have a response.
Yeah.
So it wasn't raining. It was still a beautiful day quite early in the morning. Do you know where Sugi is at this point.
Well, once I was in the water, racing along and my foot did get caught on the balcony. I was sort of trying to hold my breath and get my foot out.
So there was a strong current.
Yeah, I was on my back trying to get my foot out of the railing. And once I was in that current, I just thought, Suji's dead. There's no way that he can get out of this because he couldn't swim. It was just so it was just so much water everywhere, and I sort of thought to myself, all, Sarah, if you panic, you're gonna die too.
So yeah, I imagine that's the ultimate sense of survival. Something kicks in. Are you very clear in your head? Like the way you talk about it, It's like, Okay, he's dead, I have to stay calm.
It was completely clear. My brain just went into this zone of making decisions, grabbing onto palm trees to try and hold myself there. I've seen a massive water where all converges, and I knew I was going to go under, so I thought, Okay, Sarah, you're gonna have to hyper ventilate, and it was coming towards I'm gonna have to hype of ventilate and hold your breath because you're going under. So I just went into this zone of this this this is what you gotta do, gear up for it.
And I knew he was dead, and I knew sort of Ceciria would have been dead too.
Did you just sort of go right, I'm gonna park that information to deal with later, I.
Mean, because you were I was in the zone, yep.
Were there other people that you could see?
Not at that point. No, No, I've looked back towards the diving shop and I've just seen the roof floating along in the water and thought, well, thank god. I dropped off that it was just all water and it was, as I say, it was completely silent except the sound of the water. At that point.
Did you go under? Yeah?
I did go under?
What was that like?
I went under? I hyperventilated and I went under, and I had bubbles around my face, and I just looked up and I thought to myself, if I can see the sun, if I can see which way is up, if I get smashed into a wall or in some kind of massive I know where which way's up, because I could have ended up anywhere. So I just kept looking at the sun and I just basically thought, well, this is it. I didn't think about my family or it was just purely this is it.
Was the water like the ocean, or was it like a dirty river or with it things in it?
Yeah, it was a brown, dirty river type water. And there were big logs of buildings. Motorbike goes past and you think, well, yeah, I'm glad that missed me. Yeah, it was just like basically a junk yard in a surge of water.
So what happened next?
So then I've as I'm looking up, I've just popped out the other side and I've thought to myself, God, you're going to live. And I could feel the mudge on my toes and I thought, Sarah, you can reach the ground. So when you reach the ground, you think, okay, well I'll start walking, but I couldn't. I was just kind of pushed along, but still in that moment of terror. I could see a building coming up and two villagers were on it, and my timing and my trajectory was perfect.
They could see me coming and they've held down the roof of a rainwater tank so I could grab it. So I've grabbed onto this thing and they've pulled me up.
Did they call out to you or it'll just each other?
Yeah?
Yeah, they pulled you up. And what were you standing on a building? Yeah?
It was their house, but it was it was concrete, so it was solid. It wasn't mud brick anything. Mud brick was just washed away. So yeah, they were lucky. They must have been sort of well off and they just got on their roof and they were safe.
Once you're on that roof with them, did you say anything? Did they say anything?
The first thing I've said to them was sounds ridiculous, but I've said, does this happen? Often.
Yeah, I can understand why you would say, like, I can get I get that.
I don't know. I think my head went back to like the annual Nile flooding, you know, the history lessons, where like it floods yearly. So in my head, I thought, well, maybe this sort of happens every now and then. It's just absurd. No, they said no, no, no, no no. And I could partly speak singles at the time so I could make myself understood. And then we just stood up there and I all I could think of was Suji was dead, and I just started shouting out his name.
I have no idea why I didn't that, because it wasn't like he was just going to answer back, or I just once again my mind has focused and I sort of was screaming out his name until an Englishman was louder than me came washed into where we were.
From that roof, what could you see?
I could see just basically, all I could see was water with palm tree tops sticking out. I've got a vision of dogs paddling. Dogs survived. I don't know how, but they were paddling. It was just nothing but water basically, and treetops. Many people in the water. Not at that point.
No, No, And did that change.
Well a further down yes, once I got off and had to go to higher ground.
Yeah, So did the water subside enough for you to be able to walk towards higher ground?
Well? Once ron washed in the Englishman who was completely naked and holding his dry boxes up, what I think he had a big night before, he was asleep and in he comes. I'm screaming out so do his name? Can I swear me out?
Please?
He's saying, what the fuck was that? What the fuck was that? I'm like, man, it's okay, you're safe. He was what the forck? He was beside himself and he's washed in with his arm up holding his boxer shorts which were dry. I kid you not. I'm thinking, what the hell's this dude like? Seriously, who actually has the presence of mind to grab your undies as you'd like
fighting for your life and keep them dry? So he stood up, put on his boxes and then he's he and I I've said thank you to the men lifted me onto their house, and we've gone off together to find high ground.
What were you walking through?
Shit? Basically, it was scary because at that time. You don't know what you're going to step on. You don't know what you're going to feel.
Because you couldn't really see because the water wasn't it wasn't like mud, it was still water. How deep was it?
Oh gosh, it could have been just slightly above the knees. And we were, yeah, trudging along and I've seen two men in the water pulling along a surfboard, and on top of the surfboard was to do his body on his belly.
Oh my god, this is when you were with the Englishman in his boxes walking away. Do you have any sense of how much time had passed?
Maybe from the minute we were sort of shifting those tables, maybe ten fifteen minutes at the most.
And these people had his body on the surfboard.
Yeah, so they must have, I don't know, been safe or seen him wash in. I don't know where the surfboard came from. I've got no idea.
Did they know he was dead?
They knew he was dead?
Yeah, and you knew straightaway. Oh.
I actually said his name twice, hoping that he would open his eyes, and he didn't. And I actually regretted for a long time, not feeling for his pulse because I thought maybe he needed maybe he needed help, and I never like, I didn't double check he was obviously dead, but I still regretted not checking properly thoroughly as I tend to do things. And I've just looked up at these men and I've just said, call an ambulance. I
think they understood a word I said. They was sort of simple villages that I don't think spoken English, and they've just looked at me. Why aren't you calling an ambulance? So say. It still didn't quite hit me, and then Ron said I'll take care of you.
Let's go, And did you have to leave Sonjee?
Yeah? I did at that point. At the time, I don't know. I wasn't upset. I just you're in shock. Yeah, then what happened? So I've just left him there? Yeah, I've left him. That was really hard. Yeah. So we struggled through this water and found a bit of a dodgy bank that we've climbed up, and he was cut up quite severely. We wandered up hill along with people that were just in a similar situation to us. We were all sort of zombies. It was completely quiet. There
was no real conversation. We were just going uphill many people oh, drips and drabs, you know, there was the two of us, and then up, you know, ten twenty meters there was another few people and so it wasn't like a crowd and.
We're people talking to each other or just.
No, it was pretty quiet. I remember it being really quiet. We must have all just been in deep sharp Yeah.
How high could you go?
Well, I remember stopping halfway and Ron and I lost each other, and I've flopped down on someone's veranda and helped myself to a pair of thongs because I didn't have shoes, And there were some young ossies walking past, and I said, if you've got a phone, and they said yeah. I mean, it's just bizarre. I thought, okay, my business mind went on, got a call on let the Department of Foreign Affairs know. I mean, is this a normal reaction? I don't know me.
I mean the times that I've been into behaved very differently.
Sarah.
I don't know what you're thinking. So I've grabbed sounds like you were incredibly self possessed through all of this, Like every single decision you've made sounds like the optimum possible decision that you could have made in that moment, like that your brain was functioning on this incredibly high level when you must have been in such crazy deep shock.
Yeah, I really don't know how the brain works.
So you were like, I've got to let the Department of Foreign Affairs know.
I don't know if I thought they were going to fly out and pick up his body. I don't know what I was thinking, but I just thought, I I've had this company at home. Oh, hell was going to break loose. But so I've borrowed these kids phone. They would have probably been about eighteen twenty, and I've picked up the phone. I've said Hi, Mum, I think it worked, yes, And I couldn't remember Yeah, I could only remember the home phone up. So, hi mum, we've been hit by
a tidal wave and Soda is dead. Can you let Department of Foreign Affairs?
No, this is a voicemail.
No, this I'm talking to where on the landline back in Adelaite. Can you imagine my poor mom boxing day. Yeah, so this was before it had come out in the news. She's just got a phone call from her daughter saying that Suji died. And yeah, she said, what I said, yeah, he's dead, and she said, do you want me to She said, do you want me to go and get your father? So typical, you know old people, you'll get
your dad say hello. So she's gone out to Dad and they must have had a quick chat and he's gotten on the phone and I was in my early thirties and he said to me three words. He said, my precious child, I'll never forget it because we're not really never tell each other. We love each other much. You know, you're a grown woman, you love your dad. But at that moment he saw me as his little girl, of course, and yeah, I don't lose it. Then No, I just thought, God, that's weird hearing Dad say that.
This is only after upon reflection did I I think what he said. But yeah, we barely had a chance to talk, and a whole lot of people ran up the path and a second wave had come in and he said, Sarah, you're at the highest point. He said, you need to have your head switched on. Dad, I'm trying, seriously, he said, get to the highest point. So I hung up the phone, gave it back to the Ausies and went uphill in my thongs and my two piece bathers.
So you were up as high as you could go at this point. More or less the water didn't seem to be following.
You see it at that point.
Yeah, and the villagers must have been pretty distraught. I mean they must have lost.
Up on this mountain. Obviously they were getting feedback from all the people lower down, but they just they lived really simple lives. They were really quite poor, and they just suddenly had like forty foreigners rock up on the doorstep.
Close foreigners.
Yeah, we were all tourists. I don't know where the locals went. They were probably looking for their own people, I'm sure they were, but yeah, no, we just congregated on the highest spot and landed on these poor people's doorsteps.
And what kind of people were among the forty There.
Were a few Europeans. There was a Aussie family. They were an extended family with grandma who was eighty six at the time. There were English English tourists as well.
And did you sort of clustered by nationality? Did the Aussie stick together? Well?
Yeah, they won my tribe. I it was like, oh my god, thank god, you know someone that can kind of help me get to the consulate, you know, so it was really nice to have some Aussies up there. And they were all shocked, but they had managed to run up I don't think they'd been swept. They saw it and they ran up a hill so they were dry.
And what happened in a situation like that? Does someone do some people naturally sort of become the leaders? Or how long were you all there for?
We stayed overnight and I somehow events I got a little bit separated from the Aussies until the next morning. But I slept on the floor with an English couple of a little house. Didn't sleep too much. Actually, there was a bit of a fire outside. And we made a pact. We said we swap phone numbers. We said, if you get home first, you call the family let them know. And yeah, and I did. I got home first.
I got to the little colombo first, and when I called mom, I said, here's this number, call her mum and tell her that she's alive.
Oh, I've got goosebumps. Yeah, I can't imagine what that phone call was like.
I don't know. I was in business moment my mom. Yeah, I mean, it's just so strange. She s had to call up some lady in England and say, well, my daughter's slept with your daughter and they've swapped phone numbers and they're okay.
It's like the jungle drums in action. Yeah, we're cold. Were injured? Were people hurt?
Oh? Yeah, I wasn't too bad, as I say. I had my scrape that I was trying to keep flies off for most of the day. But there was one gentleman that I remember. He had a fully broken leg which we were trying to what do you call it when you sat with branches, Yeah, like put in a splint. Splint. Yeah, we were trying to put his leg in a splint so he could somehow make it to a hospital which wasn't in inord Tonal. We had to get to gall somehow and I remember translating how far it was and
trying to coordinate because I could speak the language. It was useful learning Singhalese.
You know.
It just goes to show I never thought it would be useful, but it actually came in handy that day. Yeah. So there were some people that were that were injured, but they left pretty quickly.
When you were up there, how long until you understood the scale of it that it wasn't just the village that you were in that it was just so massive and that so many people had died.
It wasn't until the next day once we kind of hit a radio and it was translated for us, and we had someone pointing to an atlas to Indonesia. That's where it started from. But we had no idea of the amount of life that was lost at all at that point.
How did you get off the mountain and into Colombo?
Oh yeah, with a bit of difficulty. We coordinated. I sort of hung off the Aussies and they managed to know someone I'm assuming sort of give him some payment and hit a little van and so we loaded in this van and drove through the hill country because all the infrastructure along the coast was gone. Although we did see, oh yeah, pretty much what I saw in the next day,
they'd set up morgs in shops. So we as we got into the hill country, and I just remember seeing there was a t in front of us, some kind of lorry with a whole lot of people sitting in the back, and they had about the size of this table or a big plastic rubbish bin which that occasionally one of them would vomit in that are obviously really carsick being in the back of this truck in these so we just say in this van and we had the view of these people. I mean, it was just
it was just terrific. I'm getting Gus goosebumps talking about it. But there's those little things like that that you know, you don't see on the news, the detail, things you wouldn't expect.
Yeah, what was the situation like when you got to Colombo.
The city had started to get covered in white flags, which is the morning tradition. So down the streets there'd be these beautiful white flags hung everywhere.
So Colombo hadn't been affected, not at all. But everyone was congregating there because of hospitals and infrastructure.
I think that the country just absolutely scrambled. It was thrown into this position. I think thirty thousand people died and they I mean, it's probably not as well set up as Thailand as far as infrastructure goes. So oh, look, there were army people coming in from around the world to help that Colombo wasn't too bad. I only saw a bit of it because I sort of spent the day in the consulate and the night in the Hilton on the ballroom floor where they'd set up a rescue center.
Who was there with you?
My Ausi's We were the first ones to arrive. So we walked into the Hilton and this this massive ballroom with all these little beds set up all around the outside.
Were you still wearing a cosins and stolen thongs? At this point?
A villager gave me yes. But a villager did give me a sarong us. I was wearing this black and brown song around you my boss for it? Really? Well? Yeah, yeah?
How long did you stay in that emergency accommodation in the Hilton?
Only one night? Long story? But I went from the Hilton to the Consulate, and then the Consulate to Suji's funeral, As I said, there's a whole long story there, and then from the funeral, I then had the accommodation in what we had initially booked, which was a big hotel in Colombo.
How many days after the tsunami was Suji's funeral? And how did how is his body recovered and reunited with his family? Well?
I felt absolute horror at the thought that he was going to get put into a mass grave. Some what was happening well, when I was back in, I thought, well, if I just leave him there, he's just going to end up. So I've ended up going down the following morning before he left. Before I left, one to find out where he was, and two to just make sure that they didn't put him in a mass.
Grave and the order ad receded by then. Yeah, how did you find where he was?
I walked around for a bit looking, and you know I wasn't the only one there. Yeah, people were looking for everyone. You know, there's people walking around with children in their arms that had died the day before, and that the whiling, the women that had lost kids, that sound. It was just something that you just don't forget. But once I'd located him, I basically said his family will come down and get him and take him back home.
He was in a in front of a shop. They were aligned, they were lined up because obviously people were missing.
So someone had just started lining up and so everyone had to just go and look for their loved ones.
Yeah, and I don't know how long I ca.
Yeah, in the middle of the day, in the middle of the sun.
Yeah, it was horrifying.
So you were able to say goodbye at his funeral before you left the country.
Yes, yes, yeah, I sort of, I guess. Yeah. It was different to I guess Australian funerals, or at least culturally what I've been sort of familiar with. And it was all it was a Buddhist ceremony, and it was all in another language, and it was at the house, so the coffin was in the lounge room. So I guess it was confronting, and I was a total mess, to be honest, and I felt so horrified that they hadn't found the other members of their family.
So there were other members of his family.
Who died, Yeah, his mum died, his sister and brother in law died, and a six and a four year old.
Oh god.
So I've sort of put my foot in and sort of said I'm sorry, as you say, and they said, oh no, because they weren't aware at that point that they weren't going to get found or they were in fact dead. So I don't know if you call it saying goodbye, but yeah, because.
There's a lot of confusion for a long time, wasn't there not knowing where people were and in hospitals and communications being down, That's right? How did you get out of the country and back.
Home Quantus sent a Was it a mercy flight?
I think so?
Yeah, they did, which was great. Really, I mean, yeah, what.
Was that flight back like? I mean what was the mood on the plane? Oh?
It was. The plane was very more less than half like it. There's only a few people, and it was the bumpiest ride I'd ever had because we none of us had sort of suitcases or anything, so it was really light. So it was really bumpy ride. And I used to hate flying, be terrified of turbulence. You look, I couldn't have given a damn. I just it was odd. You know. They gave us little toiletry bags of stuff. And the government, what the government did for us all was absolutely fantastic.
What did they do?
Oh, we were all given a letter and we explained the process of what was going to happen at the airport. We were offered. Oh, I think there was religious counseling or any kind of support, privacy from media, First Aid, anything that we needed. It was going to rock And well I didn't go through customs even I've just got ushered out into a separate little room. And yeah, yeah, it was amazing.
Did you talk to some of the other people on the plane?
Not really, We all kind of it was quite odd. We really did keep to ourselves. I know there are a couple of freeloaders that got a free trip to Australia out of it, but really cheeky boys. Cheeky boys, but yeah, it's just didn't seem important to double them in at the time. Oh goodness, but yeah, no, it was. It was pretty quiet.
How do you go back to your life after experiencing something like that.
No choice, You've just got no choice but to carry on. I had to go back to work. I had new contracts, starting new employees to come on board. I couldn't fall apart. I couldn't lose to fall apart. It was really rough. It was really because it was so public. Everyone knew that the managing director was dead, so I couldn't really afford not to be competent. But privately, yeah, the nightmares, and as I said, we're vegetarian for quite some time.
What do you think that was.
I couldn't. I couldn't deal with the association of eating something that was dead. And I remember totally flipping out once at Marion shopping Center I'd got a smell of something to do with the Euros meat that was cooking, and I'm like, I had to get out. Tears were coming down my face. I think, oh my god, Sarah, you're crazy. But I just there was real. And I'm not particularly religious, but that association of human death and at the end of the day we are just a
shell and meat. I just couldn't. I could not eat and I love I love steaks, but yeah, not for a long time.
Did you have post traumatic stress disorder?
Well, I you know, I wasn't officially diagnosed, but oh god, yeah, I was reliving those seconds for a long time in my brain and you know, you'd have a flashback and get it real, Sarah, you know you're actually safe. But yeah, as I say, I sort of woke up one night not remembering who I was. That was terrifying, but with a bit of DIY, psychiatry and self counseling, I sort of got through it with time.
Did you ever stay in contact with Rob?
Well, it's really strange because a year after he went back to Una and went to the house where we washed up and they had my wallet because I think the car, everything where we were had all got washed up to the one spot my driver's license was there. He knew it was me, and he got the business card out and decided to email me. And he'd spent the whole year feeling really terrible that he never looked after me like he promised. So, yeah, I was just got to work one day and there was this email.
Do you remember me? We were together in the tsunami when we found side was body. He said, I'm really so sorry that I could never look after you. We lost each other. So I said, it's all right, man.
It must have been so happy that you're alive.
Yeah, I said, it's all right, man, we got through it.
Yeah, I imagine after going through something like that, it's something that any other people who've been through it can possibly understand.
Well, yeah, absolutely. I mean we all have problem, different sorts of problems at different stages of our lives that we've got to deal with. But yeah, it was epic and it was public, and yeah, I don't know, and I guess my story is different from someone else's story that went through it, So I guess we have a level of understanding. But it's a bit like playing Survivor, you know, those those contenders on my tribe. We've got that in common. You know, we were there.
We So, yeah, how did you make the decision to do Survivor? Because I imagine that could have been really triggering.
It could have been Yeah, look, I'm up for a challenge. I love adventure. I love being outside. I love the idea of like having to sort of be short of food and having to like light fire and make your own shelter and you know, see what you're made of at the end of the day. I just love the idea of it. And I'm a bit a fan of the show.
So, yeah, you're married now and you've got two kids. Yes, we all tell stories to our kids about how much tough we had it than they did when we were younger. What do they think about your tsunami survival stories?
Well, you know what, I haven't gone into too much detail with them. My youngest Jacob, he he hasn't really asked too many questions about it. Holly, on the other hand, she's eleven and she's a lot more curious, and I guess, yeah, I haven't really wanted to go too much into detail because she just latures onto information. She'll want absolute detail.
So girls many want bad news. Oh my god, is it something you had to explain to your husband in a lot of detail for him to really get to know you. Oh do you sort of lock it away? And no?
Yeah, no, he knows, he knows, and I I guess it's just not relevant. Well, it hasn't been up until going on Survivor, but supported up as part of the application process because it's kind of cool story. But yeah, I just it gets put into a part of your mind.
That's just it's there and you're aware it's there, but you don't necessarily need to really think about it until you start freaking out at the gym that someone's dropped to weight and it's the vibration on your feet and you've got to go okay, Sarah.
So you're still triggered by things, yeah, today.
Quite unexpectedly at times, not often, not often, thank goodness, but yeah sometimes.
Well I can't wait to see what you do. I was going to say in the jungle, but it's not the jungle, is it. That's a different show. It's kind of it's is it in Fiji?
Where's it?
Where's it actually shot?
Survivor? Yes, so it's it's on a beach in Fiji. But I guess that the forest behind is somewhat jungle like, it's humid and it's green, and yeah, just a bit of both.
Well, I can't ask you how you went, but I hope you went well. And I'm glad you're back, Yeah, in one piece. And thanks. You really are a survivor.
Yeah, thank you me. Oh, thanks for having me.
Thank you for listening to No Filter and Sarah's incredible story. She is such a great I don't know, salt of the earth is the phrase that comes to mind. She's just, you know, no bs down to earth, still really affected by what happened to her. And afterwards she said, I hope I don't come across as cold when I tell the story. And I said, no, why would you think that? And she said, well it I still feel like I'm in shock in a way, and she did. She got
really teary when she talked about it. And you couldn't have seen that because a podcast is not a visual thing. But I can guarantee she's not cold, she's not numb, she's not cavalier about it. But she just had to do what she had to do to get through it.
And survive And yeah, I feel like inspiring is an overused word, but I just found listening to her tell that story of what happened on that day in a kind of a matter of fact way, but obviously she's just been affected so deeply, and it was just so moving as well to hear her talk about how she
survived it. If you're looking for something else to listen to, like and follow all of our Mum and mea podcasts which are currently bringing you Hot Pod Summer one hundred hours of summer listens, from spicy conversations to incredible stories, fashion beauty, where the friends in your ears over Summer