Ripples from the Wave: After 2004 Tsunami

On 26 December 2004, Australian ex-pat, Craig Baxter, drowned in the tsunami that engulfed Phi Phi Island, Thailand. He was one of some 270,000 souls over several continents who lost their lives that day in a matter of hours. Craig's Thai bride of nine months, Maliwan, was pregnant but miraculously survived. She still bears the physical and emotional scars of the worst natural disaster in recent history. When Maliwan accepted her mother-in-law Sandra's offer to help raise the child in Australia, life took a dramatic new direction for them both. The decade after the tsunami was a steep learning curve for the two women of different generations and cultures who shared no common language. The story includes Sandra's observations as a farang in three rites of passage in Thailand: her son's traditional wedding, his funeral only nine months later, and the birth of his and Maliwan's child. The narrative is laced with humour, as misunderstandings lead to frustrations that are set aside in the interests of Demi, Australia's littlest tsunami survivor.