The Impossible Family: The Belons

In 2004, Maria Belon and her family went on a Christmas vacation in Thailand. On 26th December, Maria and her husband and her three sons were enjoying the pool of the hotel they were staying at.

In a matter of seconds, a huge tsunami wave hit and swept her away from her family. She managed to hold on to a tree trunk. She saw one of her sons, Lucas, screaming for help some 20 metres away. When she swam towards him to help him, a second wave hit and she got seriously injured.

She was injured, but after the waves calmed down, she and Lucas could swim to land. Upon reaching the land, she noticed that her leg was badly damaged. She had to dress her leg with palm tree leaves. Lucas found a tree that they could climb up and wait for help. Maria lost too much blood until being saved by local people living in a nearby village and taken to a hospital with her son.

While Maria was being treated at the hospital, Lucas managed to reunite with his father and brothers who were miraculously safe. When she got better, she was transferred to a hospital in Singapore, where she received further treatment and then they were finally able to go home.

The story of the Belon family was made into a movie in 2012, starring Naomi Watts (Maria Belon) and Evan McGregor (Enrique Alvarez, the husband). Today’s rising star Tom Holland played Lucas – the oldest son of the family. After they finished making the movie, the actress Naomi Watts and Maria Belon became close friends. The movie received many positive reviews from critics and cinema lovers around the world.