The last pictures

Week after mum told how tsunami stole her 2 little boys, fate has finally allowed her one tiny miracle

By Georgina Dickinson

SHE found it amid the ruins of their swamped hotel room —a tiny pulse of light and colour in a world darkened by devastating grief.

In the palm of Sharon Howard's trembling hand lay a roll of film containing the most precious holiday snaps on earth.

Safe in its muddied container it had miraculously defied the merciless power of the tsunami to survive intact, embedded in the ocean silt that filled their bathroom.

And on it were images of the last few laughter-filled, sunlit days Sharon spent with her little boys Mason and Taylor and her beloved fiancé David before a 30ft wave of death swept them away forever.

Here on these pages we reveal part of that sad album of solace the brave mum and her sole surviving son Jack unearthed on a shattering pilgrimage back to Khao Lak, Thailand.

"Finding the film is a miracle—it has brought me a moment of happiness in what has been sheer hell," wept Sharon, 37. "It is only a small thing—but I feel it's all I have left of their lives.

"I had cried so much at the thought I would never see any photos of our final weeks together."

Last week Sharon told the News of the World her harrowing story. How Mason, 8, and Taylor, 6, had just run off happily to the children's club on the ground floor as the killer wave hit the shore on Boxing Day.

How she and David Page, 44—who had asked her to marry him the day before-were in Room 2114 when the giant wall of water smashed through the windows. How he heroically pushed her upwards to save her as the cruel sea filled the room—before he drowned. How she fought her way to safety after searching forlornly for her boys.

Now 14 torment-filled days later Sharon—recovered from the injuries she suffered on that dreadful day— returned to the room that nearly became her tomb.

With her was Jack, 17, who had not been on the holiday and who had flown to her side in the wake of the disaster that killed his brothers.

In a daze he watched his mum pick through the smashed-up, sea-soaked room, collecting poignant muddied reminders of the life she once had and holding them close to her heart.

Tears

There was a cuddly toy elephant the boys got on Christmas Eve—now caked in dirt. Their collection of Game Boy games still in their carry case. Taylor's swimming shorts. David's red golfing jacket. One of Mason's little silver and red trainers.

It was all too much—and a river of tears began to flow.

"Going back to that room was the hardest thing I have ever had to do," said Sharon. "It was utter torture but I knew I had to do it.

"I wanted to see if there was anything of my family left. Something I could take home and remember them by. When I spotted Mason's little trainer lying near the door my heart just stopped.

"At the other end of the room Jack found Taylor's size 13 black trainer. It suddenly brought back all that I had lost. I grabbed everything I could. It was all covered in mud but I didn't care.

"I just wanted to cradle the things in my arms and feel like a part of them was near me again."

In the fridge she found the bottle of champagne David had bought her to celebrate their engagement on Christmas Day. They were going to have it later. Now it will never be opened. "Then, just as we were about to leave, Jack put his hand in some mud in the bathroom," said Sharon. "What he found was this roll of film.

"I knew at that moment that the pain of coming back had all been worthwhile. When we had them developed and they showed us all in Bangkok earlier in the holiday, smiling and laughing, I felt like someone was finally looking down on me."

Sharon made the traumatic journey back to the Sofitel Magic Lagoon Resort and Spa last week just hours before she flew home to St Ives in Cornwall. She wanted to find that film—and to say goodbye to her boys.

First, her shoulders hunched with grief, she walked on to the beach with a wreath. Beside her were Jack and her sister Beverley, 40, along with her husband Roland Whatley-Bates, 45.

Sharon's wreath was made of three lilies and three red roses for each of her loved ones. It bore the words: "Love you forever" in the centre.

With it she attached a note which read: "To David, Mason and Taylor, You will always be in my heart. Sleep tight. Love mum and Sharon x."

Prayer

And as she laid it against a wooden cross the family had made for the boys and David, a howl exploded from her shaking body and carried across the waves: "My boys! My boys! Why my boys?"

Then everyone stood next to the cross, heads bowed in silent prayer before Jack—still unable to speak about his loss—threw a single red rose out to sea.

Reliving those heartbreaking moments Sharon said: "As I put the flowers down for them my heart felt like it was being ripped in two. I just wanted to scream.

"I thought if I cried out loud enough the boys would hear their mum. So I shouted that I loved them and David and said goodbye.

"I wanted all of them to know I was there for them again."

Then Sharon visited each of the places where her boys and David had died. She went to their favourite spot by the pool, now filled with mud and debris, where she knows Mason would have been sat playing with his Game Boy as the tsunami crashed in. Then to Room 2114 where David died.

Finally to the ground floor children's clubroom—strewn with muddied toys and broken furniture— where Taylor had been. At each she laid a single red rose.

"It was important I said my own separate goodbyes to them—because I don't know if I will ever be able to come back again," she said.

"I want to thank all my family for being there with me. Jack has been my rock even though it has been so hard for him.

"Roland and Beverley have been with me every step of the way as has my friend Johnny in Bangkok. And my friends Debbie, Jill and Martin who all travelled to Thailand to support me."

Sharon is still clinging to one last hope—that there may be other survivors out there with pictures of her family in their cameras.

"If anyone gets their holiday pictures developed and finds one of my boys on them, I'd love them to get in touch with me through the News of the World Top," she said. "Many people took photos of them because they were such happy, lively boys. So I know there must be some out there."

Later, as her plane took off for home, the anguish of leaving her boys behind swept over her—but she knows she must find the strength to face the future without them.

"I have to prepare myself for the agonising reality of trying to rebuild my life," she said. "I must do it for them and for Jack. But I know I'll never be the same again."