LeeAnn Pickrell

On the morning of December 26, 2004, an undersea earthquake struck off the coast of Sumatra in the Indian Ocean. The resulting tsunami killed an estimated 230,000 people across fourteen countries, from Indonesia to Sri Lanka to Thailand to the Maldives to India and all the way to East Africa. Everyone who was there and survived has a story of where they were when the tsunami hit. But there are too many stories that will never be told. This is one woman’s story of her experience of that day and its aftermath.

It’s the story of the tsunami in a particular place, of not understanding what was happening, of separation and reunion. It’s also a story of coming home, of not being hurt physically but the psychic shifts of such an experience. It’s about the letting go of old ideas of faith that no longer make sense and opening to the connections we have to each other through the stories we tell.