What happened?

Part 9: Six sisters - Six continents - Six years of pain

Amy:

Like a month later, I was asked to give a speech about my experience, because the tsunami turned into a historical event. I told them I had an amnesia and don't remember clearly at all. But that's exactly what they really wanted. An honest story about how I feel. It took me a few days to think about it. Did they ask my sisters as well? What if I fail miserably? Am I doing the right thing? Is THIS fair? In the end I decided to do it, because I was paid for it. Still not enough to go to Christina and stand on my own, but a start.

Well, when the day was there, I tried not to focus on anything else but the speech. They flew me out to Johannesburg where the conference took place. We had a late start this day. We where about to take off at 7:15am but had a delay of 50 minutes. Great morning. A two hours flight went by and then we headed to the hotel. They told me that the conference would start at 1pm and they would pick me up 30 minutes later. Nice. Just because of the delay at the airport, I had less time to get ready. I planned to take a shower, dress up, have some lunch and practice the speech. Now I only got time for a quick shower. Prioritieeeeees.
So, they picked me up right after I finished and brought me to a very big area. Some kind of hall. I was scared, because it was much bigger than I thought. I was brought to a room with 3 other survivors... sadly, none of my sisters where there. I sat on a chair in the corner of the room. I was not in the mood to talk. I just focused on myself and wished my sisters where there. Half an hour before the event started, they brought me to my seat. Special VIP. Okay, I had to make it.

When I was called up, I stood up and walked to the desk. People started cheering for me, then, everyone got silent. I looked at the people in this huge hall. Suddenly it came over me. I felt the tears coming up. I thought about my sisters. Why am I wasting my time here intead of doing something? Just talking about it won't change anything. I thought about leaving the stage, but something kept me going. It was a little boy in the front row. His Mom comforted him, because he was crying. I stared at them for like 10 seconds, until a guy next to me asked me if I was alright. In that moment, I took a deep breath, crumpled my notes, put them into my pockets and started talking.

"Hello, good afternoon. My name is Amy Cimorelli and I'm 23 years old. I'm a surviver of the tsunami attack. (cheering)                                                                                                                                               I suffered from amnesia after the inccident, which does not make it easy to talk about what happened before, during and right after the inccident. Only about 2 months ago, I started to remember. And you know what caused my memory flood? I met my sister. My sister, who's been with me in the inccident. The sister I forgot about because of this.      I was angry about myself, I was sad about myself, I was confused about myself. I didn't remember all those people in my head. I asked myself how I could forget about my own family. I even questioned God. I didn't understand the choice He made. For a long time I had troubles believing in myself. I felt like I wasn't the person I used to be. Like, who am I anyway? Who are WE anyway? I bet all of you came here, because either you lost someone in this, you were in this or you are interested in this - probably as a scientist or a politician.                                                                                                             Backstage, I met two other survivers. I saw them - deadly nervous practicing their speech... But their eyes said something different. They told stories. Stories about a tremendous horrific experience, a worried family and about the human we all are. No matter if WE were in this or someone we know, we do have stories to tell, nobody wants to tell. We went through alot. We are not a book anyone can talk about. We can't just read about this incident, like I was about to do. I had my notes ready, but then I saw this little boy in the audience. I remembered that we're in the present. I thought about my little brother Joey. I lost him, my four other brothers and my parents in Australia, but I could never cry about it, because I didn't know until I met my sister two months ago. I regret it and I still have to overcome it. I understand everyone in here. Life is not always fair. And so was the tsunami.                                                                                                                     This speech is gonna be alot shorter than I planned it to be. But the speech I wrote down, was a text I wrote in disbelief and completely organized. But this story isn't organized. It's a crazy mess and a battle. A battle we have to life with. No matter how many books or articals or even movies or documentaries you will make about this, it won't replace our memory. When I got the invitation to this event today, I tried everything to remember even everything I could, so I wouldn't disappoint anyone, but now I realize it's wrong. I can't demand anything that isn't supposed to be here. It will come when it's supposed to come.                                                                       When I came to Africa, I lived in a very poor village. A family who didn't even have enough to live a normal life took me to them. That's when I experienced poverty for the first time in my life. But also the first time I saw grace and hope in a different way than I knew it. In a hard winter, the parents to the children I lived with died. Now their son, is my godchild. I took him to Cape Town with me. Now he goes to school with normal kids. I can't even decribe how much he thanks me for taking care of him. He got this soul of Grace and Joy. He is a true role model for me. He taught me how to live with this fate. And there IS hope after such kind of fate. I'm a teacher now. I found my sister and just a few weeks ago, I got a letter from my other sisters that they are safe and alive. It took us a few years. But you see, there is never an end. We never stopped believing. And now, after we were seperated for years, not knowing if anyone even survived, we found each other. We won't be able to reunite anytime soon, because my oldest sister, who I met, is still in India. It needs time but it will happen. Remember this: Make it one more night. You will never know what will happen tomorrow. We are all human and we all have feelings. No matter if we experience grief, hope, joy, isolation, pain or anger, we are alive and allowed to feel. A fate won't make us different person, it will just make us wiser and give us memories. Memories we need.

Six sisters, six continents, six years of pain.

Thank you."

When I finished this speech, everyone stood up and cheered. I saw tears in some people's eyes. I started crying when I was speaking. It was very overwhelming and I had to stop a few times to find words for what I was feeling in this moment. 

A few weeks later, I found out that my speech went viral and took many of people all around the world. I really did not know how to react to this. I was emotionally overwhelmed. And when I was notified that people started a foundrasing project called "Six sisters - six continents - six years of pain" I was completely out of my mind. People all aound the world donated money to get us back together. They called us "Hero Phenomenon" because we all survived a tsunami. In a world with 7.6 billion people, this is something that is actually almost impossible. The fundraising project blew up and we already had about $50K after a few weeks which is definitely enough to get Christina out of India and both of us back to our sisters.