For Ozden Cicek, a Dubai-based resident of Turkish origin, what started as an idyllic vacation at her beach house on August 17, 1999, turned into a nightmare, leaving some indelible impressions on what life was really about. "It was a beautiful, calm summer's night 11 years ago. My family always vacationed in our beach house in Gamlik about 10km from Istanbul," says Cicek.
After putting her two daughters Bishra and Banu (four years and three years old then) to sleep, Cicek, her parents and siblings were catching up on the past year's events and it was 2:30am when the family decided to retire for the night.
Then half an hour later, disaster struck. An earthquake measuring 6.7 on the Richter scale, the most powerful one to hit Turkey, struck Izmit, about 80km from Istanbul. It lasted 37 seconds, killed thousands of people and left over half a million homeless.
"I woke up to a very loud noise. More like a deep rumbling. Everything around me came crashing down. Bookshelves, the refrigerator, the cupboards… the furniture was moving, and worst of all, the ground beneath seemed like it would swallow me up any minute. I thought it was the end of the world.''
Like all mothers, Cicek's first thought was the safety of her sleeping children. But even the nine-metre walk into the next room proved to be a Herculean task because her home was literally moving. "I was so disoriented. And then there was a power failure. It seemed like an eternity before I got to my children."
Finally, the family managed to get to the beach, where other families of the 300,000 holidaying community were huddled together dazed. "We stayed at the beach for the next few hours. We knew it wouldn't be safe to go into the city.
"Fortunately for us, my aunt had a farm house about 30km from the beach, so along with five families, we drove there.''
A week later Cicek and her family made their way to Istanbul. The damage to their home was minor, but all around, the city was in chaos.
"For the next three months, until we returned to Dubai, all of us helped out in any way we could.
"That day I realised that nothing really is in our control. Yes, we always know it and talk about it, but it took those 37 seconds to drive that truth home. And it has changed all of us in some way. As a family we hug each other more now and I try live each day, each moment as if it were my last, making me a happier, fuller person."
