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Fifteen-year-old
Wati, second right, poses for a photograph with her father
Yusuf, right, mother
Yusniar, left, and younger brother Aris at their home
in Meulaboh, Aceh
province, Indonesia, Friday, Dec. 23, 2011. The girl who
was swept away in the
Indian Ocean tsunami seven years ago has been reunited
with her parents. (AP
Photo)
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BANDA ACEH,
Indonesia (AP) -- A girl who was swept away in the Indian Ocean tsunami seven
years ago said Friday that she broke down in tears this week after tracking
down her parents, who had long lost hope of finding her alive.
Fifteen-year-old
Wati showed up at a cafe in Meulaboh, a town in Aceh province, earlier this
week saying that not long after the wave hit she was found and
"adopted" by a woman who forced her to beg in the streets, sometimes
until 1 a.m.
When she
stopped bringing in money, Wati was kicked out by the woman. She then set out
to find her family, but had very little information to guide her - only the
name of her grandfather, Ibrahim.
Someone at
the cafe tracked down a man by that name, and the man - unsure if it was
actually his granddaughter - quickly summoned her parents.
"When
I saw my mother, I knew it was her. I just knew it," said Wati, who was
given that name by the woman who found her. Her original name is Meri Yuranda.
The Dec.
26, 2004, tsunami that killed 230,000 people in a dozen nations hit Aceh -
closest to the epicenter of the magnitude-9.1 quake that spawned waves 30 feet
(10 meters) high - the hardest.
With tens
of thousands of bodies never recovered in the province, many people continue to
cling to hope of finding lost loved ones, putting up fliers or ads in
newspapers.
Reunions,
however, are extremely rare and, when they occur, rarely confirmed.
Wati's
mother, Yusniar binti Ibrahim Nur, 35, said she did not need a DNA test to
prove the girl was hers.
"She
has her father's face," she said, adding that she had stopped believing
she would ever see her daughter again. "Then I saw the scar over her eye
and mole on her hip, and I was even more sure."
Wati and
her father had different accounts of what happened on the day of the tsunami.
The girl
says she remembers her father putting her into a boat with her sister, who is
still missing and presumed dead. The father says that before the family was
separated, he put both of his daughters on the roof of their house.
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Meri
Yuranda, aka Wati (c), is reunited with her family in Meulaboh,
West Aceh,
Indonesia. (Photograph: Arman/EPA)
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