After the storm....

It has taken me over a week to finally get up the emotional strength to write about the Tsunami that hit the Samoan islands. It has been a hard time for my family and I. Just a little background. In Western Samoa the hardest hit were the villages of Lalomanu and Malaela. These villages are ocean front in Upolu. Lalomanu is famous for its beaches and Malaela, I believe had the first LDS chapel built for the Upolu area. Well, my mom hails from Malaela, the village the Purcell family call home, and my father is from Lalomanu. Seeing the pictures of Lalomanu and Malaela, and the devastation caused by the tsunami broke my heart. My beloved villages that harbored childhood memories of family reunions and the family that I love so dearly. Such a happy place for me, had now become a place of chaos, destruction and death. One of the hardest things for me, was loosing my Aunty Polu. Polu, was like a second mother to me. She was there for me during some of my troublesome teenage years. Always with a heart warming smile. Always with a loving word of advice. And always with something humorous to say. She is a shining example of love and strength. She is a woman that battled cancer, with a smile on her face, and beat it. She under went major surgery and still managed to keep her spirits high and her independence. She will forever remain in my heart. Her love for life, and love for others will always stay with me. Its quiet ironic that cancer did not take her, that it had to be a natural disaster that took her. She will be greatly missed by me and everyone in the family. With all the pain and seeing that my villages need so much help in rebuilding their lives, it is with Aunty Polu's example that 5 cousin's and myself started Operation M.A.L.A.E.L.A (Mending A Life And Embracing the Love of Aiga) please visit us at www.operationmalaela.blogspot.com