ISHINOMAKI, Miyagi Prefecture--Life was filled with joy for Eriko Okuda. Her 23-year-old son, Satoshi, had married a week earlier, and Okuda was having lunch with her 27-year-old daughter-in-law at a restaurant in the downtown area of this city.
ISHINOMAKI, Miyagi Prefecture--Life was filled with joy for Eriko Okuda. Her 23-year-old son, Satoshi, had married a week earlier, and Okuda was having lunch with her 27-year-old daughter-in-law at a restaurant in the downtown area of this city.
The close-knit family would soon be joined by a new member in a matter of months. The 46-year-old Okuda was going to be a grandmother.
But then the ground shook ferociously that afternoon on March 11, and Okuda's life was turned upside down.
After the trembling subsided, Okuda and her daughter-in-law jumped into their car and headed toward Yoshihama, a neighborhood near the estuary of a river leading to the Pacific Ocean where Satoshi worked.
But a tsunami that had followed the quake damaged the road, blocking their path to the seaside community.
Despite their determination to find Satoshi, the two were forced to wait until morning and slept in the car.
The next day, they climbed over heaps of debris stretching for several kilometers before reaching an evacuation shelter set up near Yoshihama.
They hoped to be greeted by the young man who was so full of spunk.
Instead, they had to identify his body.
Satoshi's new wife collapsed next to her husband's body and would not budge, as if she had lost all desire to live.
Stunned by grief, Okuda looked around the Yoshihama neighborhood. She did not find anything familiar in the community. Instead, heaps of rubble seemed to continue forever.
Okuda's own home had collapsed. Her parents and her 9-year-old daughter, Ririka, who had been inside the home when the quake struck, were missing.
In this community of about 200 people, only 50 escaped the huge waves that wiped out the area, according to locals. The survivors gathered in a nearby temple, the only structure in the district that survived the tsunami. There, they shared food and munitions scrounged from the ruins.
The local folk tried to cheer up Okuda as best they could.
One noted how Satoshi had become even more handsome since deciding to tie the knot.
Another commended Okuda "for raising Satoshi into a fine young man."
But Okuda remained in a daze, blurting out, "Why did I have to be the one who survived?"
One woman chided Okuda, reminding her that she had to continue living her life.
Okuda seemed to come out of her trance, uttering: "I lost so much. But I don't want to die. I still can't die."
Then she remembered her daughter-in-law who is six months pregnant, and realized that her son had left her an important gift.
"Satoshi has given us a new life. And I must stay alive for this child," Okuda said.
She said she searched for the wedding ring that Satoshi always took off at work to protect it from scratches and dents. But she could not find it.
Instead, she said a neighbor had managed to fish out Satoshi's favorite pair of sunglasses from his car, which had been crushed beyond recognition.
Okuda said she intends to treasure the sunglasses until the day when she can show it to her grandchild.