last bus ride: tsunami stories (II)

The following is an excerpt of a documentary I was recently asked to translate into English:

Minoru and Yoshimi Miyake, whose lives were lost in the tsunami, were devoted members of St. John's. Their daughter, Junko Nakaso, was also one of the victims of the tsunami.

Junko worked as a teacher at Fuji Kindergarten in Yamamoto-cho, a town just north of Shinchi-machi. On March 11, Junko and her colleagues were riding the bus home with 18 children from the kindergarten when the tsunami struck.

Reports say that the bus and all its passengers were swept along by the tsunami and struck a house, and then began slowly filling with water.

In ice-cold weather, Junko worked to get all the children safely out of the bus. While waiting for help to come, she sought to encourage the children and keep them calm. Military rescue efforts began the next morning.

By that time, Junko had already been called home to be with the Lord.