Sulifa saw tsunami roaring over coconut trees, engulfing Hihifo [1]
Thursday, October 8, 2009 - 12:45. Updated on Thursday, August 21, 2014 - 16:36.
By Linny Folau
Lying injured in Vaiola Hospital, 65-year-old Sulifa Losalu mourns the loss of her beloved husband Heneli Losalu (69) who died helping her to escape the September 30 tsunami wave they saw rushing toward their Hihifo, Niuatoputapu, home engulfing everything in its path.
The mother of eight children said the couple had just returned to their home after attending an early morning church service when the earthquake struck around 6:00 am.
Sulifa heard her husband yelling for her to get out and she hurried out of the house, but then remembered her little statue of Mary, the mother of Jesus, and she ran back inside to get it with her handbag.
Sulifa vividly remembered she then heard a strong roaring sound "like a machine" and Heneli shouting from outside to "run, there is a huge wave coming!"
"My husband waited for me and as I ran out I saw the wave, which was above the coconut trees coming towards us. It was a horrifying sight and I ran, and my husband kept yelling for me to run fast. As I looked back at him that was the last I saw of him as the wave struck him, then me.
"I was underwater swallowing water and was thrown around like a thin stick, hitting debris, trees that came in my way. I just remembered praying to Mary to please help me."
Sulifa said she was then flung onto a rooftop and held tightly onto it and managed to get up from below the surging wave to breathe.
"I felt the wave subsiding and I remained there until my son 'Osika, who was in the bush when the tsunami hit, rescued me.
"He carried me down and the ocean was still up to our waist but the waves had subsided. It was not until 4:00 pm that my husband was found dead, kneeling down, at another area. I was shattered," she said.
"I feel this aching hole in my heart after loosing my husband because I know he could have made it but he waited for me to come out of the house before running. I love him so much and being apart from him is devastating."
The village children later found Sulifa's statue of Mary and her handbag and returned them to her.
Flown out
Sulifa was one of the first four patients that were first flown down to Nuku'alofa for urgent treatment on Thursday, October 1.
"Most of my children live here in Tongatapu and some overseas, they are all here now and we are having a memorial for my husband tonight in Puke where my son lives."
The mother said when she gets better she is going back to Niuatoputapu. "Although there is nothing there with no house left, I want to be with my husband who is buried there," she said.
Sulifa is doing very well in the hospital and can manage to sit up and stand up on her own for a few minutes. But she mainly uses the wheelchair to get around while her knees are healing.