The Impossible
(2012)
is a true story of a family's bravery and endurance in the aftermath of 2004's deadly tsunami.
here is a pic of the actual family
Surrounded by her loving family as she relaxed by the pool on a dream holiday, Maria Belon felt she must be the luckiest woman in the world.
Seconds later, Maria and her terrified husband and three sons were swept away by a ferocious 30ft wall of water that devoured everything in its path.
Maria was horrifically wounded as she was dragged under water by the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami of Boxing Day 2004.
After being submerged for more than three minutes, she finally surfaced and clung on to a tree.
She was petrified, alone and convinced she was dying – but in a miracle that has inspired new film The Impossible, the mum and her family survived.
Moments before paradise was smashed to bits, Maria was on a lounger at the Orchid Resort Hotel in Thailand while her boys, Lucas, 10, Tomas, eight, and Simon, five, were playing nearby with their dad.
The mum watched in horror as husband Quique Alvarez and their two youngest boys were submerged by the roaring mass of dark water that carried with it cars and the chalet the family had been staying in.
“We couldn’t see the wave,” says Maria, who is a doctor.
“We started to hear a very horrible sound. I was looking around thinking maybe this is just in my mind.
"No one recognised the sound. It felt like the Earth was coming apart but everything looked perfect.
“I was facing the sea and saw a huge black wall. I didn’t think it was the sea. I thought it was a black wall coming to get us.
“The two youngest boys were in the swimming pool with my husband.
"Lucas, the eldest, was just in front of me. He had just got out of the pool to fetch the ball we had bought them on Christmas Day.
"I screamed to my husband and to the kids. I thought it was the end for all of us. Lucas was crying out, ‘Mama, Mama’.
"Then they all disappeared under water.
“I went through a lot of very difficult moments under the water – shock, and fear about the boys.
“I remember being pushed against walls. You could feel them trembling and breaking.
“I was not in physical pain but the drowning sensation was like being in a spin dryer.
"The doctors said I was under water for over three minutes because my lungs were full of water."
“When I came to the surface I wrapped myself around a tree and clung on.
"It was so hard to work out what things were because nothing looked normal.”
Maria had deep gashes to her chest and a terrible wound on her right thigh.
But through the agony and confusion she saw something that gladdened her heart.
Maria says: “About 15 metres away I could see a little head, and I thought ‘My goodness, I think it’s Lucas’.
"After that I heard him screaming for me so I went to get him.
“In that moment it felt like the most blessed vision I have ever had. You forget about yourself completely.
"You just think about saving them. I swam across the current and grabbed him. We held on to a tree trunk.
“I was dying, I could feel it happening to me. When I was up the tree, bleeding very heavily with very deep wounds, I could feel the dying process.
"I had really bad internal bleeding as well as the external wounds.”
(2012)
is a true story of a family's bravery and endurance in the aftermath of 2004's deadly tsunami.
here is a pic of the actual family
Surrounded by her loving family as she relaxed by the pool on a dream holiday, Maria Belon felt she must be the luckiest woman in the world.
Seconds later, Maria and her terrified husband and three sons were swept away by a ferocious 30ft wall of water that devoured everything in its path.
Maria was horrifically wounded as she was dragged under water by the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami of Boxing Day 2004.
After being submerged for more than three minutes, she finally surfaced and clung on to a tree.
She was petrified, alone and convinced she was dying – but in a miracle that has inspired new film The Impossible, the mum and her family survived.
Moments before paradise was smashed to bits, Maria was on a lounger at the Orchid Resort Hotel in Thailand while her boys, Lucas, 10, Tomas, eight, and Simon, five, were playing nearby with their dad.
The mum watched in horror as husband Quique Alvarez and their two youngest boys were submerged by the roaring mass of dark water that carried with it cars and the chalet the family had been staying in.
“We couldn’t see the wave,” says Maria, who is a doctor.
“We started to hear a very horrible sound. I was looking around thinking maybe this is just in my mind.
"No one recognised the sound. It felt like the Earth was coming apart but everything looked perfect.
“I was facing the sea and saw a huge black wall. I didn’t think it was the sea. I thought it was a black wall coming to get us.
“The two youngest boys were in the swimming pool with my husband.
"Lucas, the eldest, was just in front of me. He had just got out of the pool to fetch the ball we had bought them on Christmas Day.
"I screamed to my husband and to the kids. I thought it was the end for all of us. Lucas was crying out, ‘Mama, Mama’.
"Then they all disappeared under water.
“I went through a lot of very difficult moments under the water – shock, and fear about the boys.
“I remember being pushed against walls. You could feel them trembling and breaking.
“I was not in physical pain but the drowning sensation was like being in a spin dryer.
"The doctors said I was under water for over three minutes because my lungs were full of water."
“When I came to the surface I wrapped myself around a tree and clung on.
"It was so hard to work out what things were because nothing looked normal.”
Maria had deep gashes to her chest and a terrible wound on her right thigh.
But through the agony and confusion she saw something that gladdened her heart.
Maria says: “About 15 metres away I could see a little head, and I thought ‘My goodness, I think it’s Lucas’.
"After that I heard him screaming for me so I went to get him.
“In that moment it felt like the most blessed vision I have ever had. You forget about yourself completely.
"You just think about saving them. I swam across the current and grabbed him. We held on to a tree trunk.
“I was dying, I could feel it happening to me. When I was up the tree, bleeding very heavily with very deep wounds, I could feel the dying process.
"I had really bad internal bleeding as well as the external wounds.”