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How Restaurant Owner Who Survived World’s Worst Tsunami Found the ‘Strength’ to Help 100 Others Amid Her Trauma (Exclusive)

  • Thuleewan “Kimmy” Boonyarattana escaped the devastating 2004 tsunami that devastated the Phi Phil Islands in Thailand and worked with other survivors to help over 100 people

  • “I couldn’t leave the people and even the children behind,” she tells PEOPLE

  • She was traumatized by the event but feels “stronger” today

Thai restaurateur Thuleewan “Kimmy” Boonyarattana was in the Phi Phi Islands when she received a call from her nephew on the morning of December 26, 2004: “Are you OK there?” he asked. “Something happened.”

The phone was cut off as the waves of the massive tsunami came. Boonyarattana, 52, never saw her nephew again.

“I (close) my eyes and just pray… ‘Oh God, take my life. I didn’t make it,'” she tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue.

But despite the chaos that surrounded them, Boonyarattana managed to rise to a higher level. Suddenly she discovered a statue of Mary and baby Jesus that gave her “strength.”

Related: After Hours of Burial in 2004 Tsunami, Survivor Says Next Generation Must Know What Happened (Exclusive)

“My fears just disappeared,” adds Boonyarattana, who also appears in National Geographic magazine Tsunami: Race against timeStreaming on Disney+ and Hulu. “Something inspired me that I had to start helping these people because I couldn’t ignore (their) suffering.”

To learn more about life 20 years after the 2004 tsunami, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE on newsstands now or subscribe.

Boonyarattana remembers meeting an injured girl who asked for help and to pray with her. Then she died – one of the almost 230,000 people who died in the disaster.

“I (closed) her eyes and felt, ‘Oh no, my God,'” she adds. “After that…everyone called for help.”

Related: Supermodel Petra Nemcova almost died in the world’s worst tsunami. How She Overcame and Healed Her Fear of Water (Exclusive)

Boonyarattana estimates that she and other survivors helped at least 100 people after the devastation. She even helped translate.

“I couldn’t leave the people and even the children behind,” she shares. “I couldn’t ignore them.”

The memories left a traumatic mark on Boonyarattana, as she still wonders “why it all happened” and why she couldn’t help more people.

But today she is finally feeling “much better”. She says, “I feel stronger.”

Read the original article on People

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