i was in an office chair with wheels. as it started, the chairs began to slide. things began falling off the at chevy, we re all family. we re a festive family. shelves. we re a four-legged family. zach had never been in an we re a get-up-and-go family. earthquake. his co-workers knew this one was we re a ski family. big. we re all part of the chevy family. worried the building might and as we kick off the new year, collapse, they ran downstairs we d like you to be a part of ours. and out to the parking lot. because our chevy employee discount but soon they were told it was is still available to everyone. okay, it was over. when the shaking stopped, the the chevy price you pay is what we pay. disaster was just beginning. not a cent more. there was a monster out there so happy new year, and welcome to the family. over the horizon called fate, the chevy family! the chevy employee discount for everyone ends soon. and it was coming very fast. almost as soon as zach got back to his desk,
i won t forget that moment. water and debris piled up almost to the second floor. no one could leave. what was that like? that was the worst night of my life. a sleepless night huddled in her boss s office. thinking about zach. the next morning, a jolting aftershock and more sirens. but then zach found her, and together they looked at what was left of the town. georgia took these pictures. 38 people lost their lives in noda, a tiny percentage of the more than 18,000 who died up sand down the coast but half of noda was simply gone. it was like someone had driven a bulldozer through and it was all gone. how a wave can do that, i don t know.
it was insane. well, that s the way to a girl s heart. yes, yes. and georgia s story, well, if zach had been ring side, georgia was center stage. and although she had been through earthquakes before in new zealand, this one was much, much different. that s the first time i found it hard to walk or stand in an earthquake. still, everyone around her seemed okay. she thought it was all just kind of exciting. even when the tsunami siren went off. oh, cool, this is really exciting. others knew better and georgia soon learned this was very, very bad. they said we need to go upstairs.
the first in indiana. the second one in new zealand. and there was a special guest at that one. two-month-old sebastian. after promising his mother it was never going to happen, sure enough, zach and his family now live in new zealand, he works for the government, and georgia at a recruitment agency, and sebastian is busy growing up. in 2014, we brought them back to japan for the first time since it all happened. my name is georgia. this teacher and her students knew about georgia and zach. many here looked upon their story as one part of the thing that came out of that horrible tragedy. do you ever, and this is a totally unfair question, do you ever sometimes sit together at
georgia met him at the train station. as we were walking to the car, i don t know, i just, i, you just have to stop. what are you doing? it s freezing. let s get in the car. let s go. and he was saying wait, and all of a sudden, he turned around and he is shaking, but he is holding a ring box. and i got down on my knee, and i just said i love you, and i want to spend the rest of my life with you, i don t care if it is in japan or if it it s in new zealand or if we re in siberia, i want to spend the rest of my life with you, and you know, will you marry me. and i said yes, of course. i had to put him out of his misery. he looked like he was going to collapse. so i was engaged and we didn t really know what we were going to go from there or where we were going to go and we were having a baby and we were going to get married. in fact, you got married twice. yeah, we did. yes. yes, two weddings.