Annamma Varghese has not had a smile on her face since August 15. The woman from Kallisseri Mangalam near Chengannur lost most of her family to the river which submerged entire neighbourhoods in the area.

Her 39-year-old son Reni George had been bedridden for six years following a road accident. Her husband K G Varghese aka Baby was a diabetes patient. His mother Sosamma was 97 years old. All of them were drowned inside their house located half a kilometre away from the main road.

Rescue teams heard the cries from the house only on the third day of the fatal flood. The men who rowed up to the house saw Annamma holding on to a metal grill and crying for her life.

Memories float

The house sitting smug in the shade of a rich green foliage wears a deserted look now. Even the road leading up to the house is eerily silent. The woman who tried desperately to save her bedridden son, sick husband and old mother-in-law is still in shock. She spent spent two days with the bodies of her loved ones, trying to keep afloat all the while.

Annamma was a nurse at a community health centre in Uttar Pradesh. Her husband was a retired Indian Air Force officer. Baby returned to settle in Kerala in 2007 along with his mother. Annamma followed suit five years later. Her son Reni was already confined to bed but he partially recovered after they returned to Kerala. He was able to sit up and move himself about in a wheelchair.

Her younger son David George is a teacher in Gujarat.

August 15

Baby had gone for his daily morning walk on August 15. He found the path flooded. He cut short his routine and returned home after buying some biscuits from the nearby shop. The yard had turned into a river. The family had no idea what was in store for them.

After an anxious day of heavy downpour, Annamma was cooking dinner for the family when she felt the water touching her feet. In a few minutes, she was knee-deep in water. She suddenly fed the others whatever she managed to cook and ran up to her bedroom, where the phone was ringing. She did not check who was on the other line. She implored the caller to save them.

She then rushed to her son's room, negotiating the logs floating in the rising water. The water was rising fast, reaching up to the level of the young man sitting on his bed. Annamma supported him against her shoulder. Her husband and mother-in-law were in the room too. The four of them stood staring at each other.

August 16

They stood in neck-deep water for the entire day, Reni leaning against his mother. He was scared. He kept asking if someone would come to rescue them. She tried to reassure him. All of them were starving and shivering in the cold. They had been standing in the water for a night and a day. The current was so strong that they had to struggle to stand firm.

Annamma would cry out loud whenever she thought she heard voices outside. Nobody answered. By evening, Sosamma could not stand any longer. She just collapsed into the water without uttering a word. Annamma could not even offer her hand to save her mother-in-law. She was still carrying Reni.

Baby, a diabetic, was tired too. He could not even move to nibble at the biscuits he had bought the previous day. He fell headlong to the water.

Annamma can't remember when she lost hold of her son. She can't stop blaming herself for not staying awake through that horrible night. She felt Reni sliding into the water. She tried to grab him. But the water was too deep and the current too strong. It was pitch dark.

August 17

The rescue operations had been stepped up. The boatmen finally managed to reach all the nooks and corners of the area, even to Annamma's house which was not immediately visible from the main road. They could save only Annamma. The rescue workers found three bodies in the house.

Annamma was hoping for a peaceful retired life when she returned to Kerala eight years after three decades of service in Uttar Pradesh. What she is left with are horrible memories of a flood. She was attending the funerals of her son, husband and mother-in-law on the day when they were supposed to be relishing the Onam feast.

She has not returned to her house. She found it hard to recount the two-day nightmare sitting in the house of a relative at Chengannur.