Leone Cosens' sisters Gill Thomas (in white) and Claire Gurunathan take a moment to reflect. Photo / NZME
Leone Cosens' sisters Gill Thomas (in white) and Claire Gurunathan take a moment to reflect. Photo / NZME
The Herald revisits the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami through the stories of New Zealanders caught up in the tragedy.
On Boxing Day morning, 2004, Leone Cosens had called from Thailand to chat and sister Claire Gurunathan was racing to collect family at the airport.
The phone was ringing, children were arriving and it was that busy, crazy time of year.
"We'll have a really good chat when we get back from the airport," Ms Gurunathan told Ms Cosens before heading out the door.
"We said as soon as we get back we'll ring you. We rang ... her husband answered the phone." He was recently wheelchair-bound and hysterical, crying because he didn't know where she was.
Image 1 of 12: GNS Science researcher Dr Noel Trustrum has written a new book, Aceh Revives, recounting the recovery of the people of Aceh, Indonesia, following the devastating Boxing Day tsunami 10 years ago.
"We never got to say goodbye to her," says Ms Gurunathan, 59 and living north of Wellington.
"One of the things I find really weird is the word 'tsunami' has become a part of people's vocabulary now. I shudder when I hear it."
Ms Cosens, 51, was killed in the Boxing Day Tsunami, but not immediately. The disaster had arrived in a crashing wave which then receded.
In the time before it returned, the expat Kiwi had headed for the coast.
It wasn't far to the beach house Ms Cosens owned and to the couple who were staying there - she made it in the time between the receding first wave and the deadly second that killed her. The husband of the tenants was the only one to survive and he talked later of a roar like a jet engine as the water arrived. "He said the noise was overwhelming ... but he had no idea what it was."
Ms Cosens and the man's wife had taken shelter behind a wall. "That is what fell on them," says Ms Gurunathan. "For a while I had nightmares of her drowning in the water. But she was killed on impact."
As they grieved the loss of a sister, the devastation was such it was impossible to be unaware of what others had suffered.
"One of the things that will live with me forever was that terrible smell of death. I can still smell it. It was absolutely overpowering. Here were we who had lost a sister but we had families all around us who lost so many people. The rows and rows and rows of bodies in bags. That was the other thing that kept hitting me for ages - they were people."
Ms Cosens had arrived just over a decade earlier, seeking a change in life and drawn to Thailand. The family, says Ms Gurunathan, has strong ties there - with all sisters at one stage living in Southeast Asia.
Ms Cosens' funeral was held less than a week after her death, due to connections with the Thai royal family.
Ms Gurunathan found her sister's friends in lower places too. Ms Cosens had dedicated herself to Phuket's stray dog problem, devoting hours to the Soi Dog Foundation. Her dedication to the foundation is still recognised and celebrated. "That's truly lovely to know that's continuing in her name."
Branches of the family have been back to see the plaque where Ms Cosens died.
Ms Gurunathan is haunted by lost opportunity. "It's just a waste. She was, and would have continued to be, the most amazing auntie to all our kids."
