Wife of Wayne native missing in Thailand
By Bonnie Edwards
Published in News on December 31, 2004 2:01 PM
Faye Massey of Goldsboro said she had a strange dream Christmas night.
She awoke Sunday morning and told her husband, Chris Basden, that she dreamed she was driving a truck and couldn't stop it. She put her head out the window, and when she got back inside, she was wet, drenching wet.
Then, Mrs. Massey and her husband heard about the earthquake and tsunami in southern Asia. And that night they learned that her daughter-in-law might have been one of the victims.
Her son, Tim, told her that he and his wife, Carol Massey, were walking on the beach at a resort in southern Thailand and saw the people around them were running and hollering. They ran, too.
They were in the midst of one of history's worst natural disasters.
An earthquake had struck beneath the Indian Ocean off Indonesia. Tidal waves that it created took more than 120,000 lives in nine countries. It was the biggest earthquake in four decades.
Tim and Carol Massey were on vacation. The couple had been married seven years and lived in California. He grew up in the Grantham area and graduated with honors from N.C. State University, and she grew up in Winston-Salem area and graduated from Wake Forest University. Both were electrical engineers in California's Silicone Valley.
"You never see a couple that thinks of each other as much as they do," said Mrs. Massey
"We worried that night," Mrs. Massey said in an interview as she admired a card that Carol Massey had sent her from South Africa.
The couple love to travel. She had gone from Africa to Thailand and he had joined her there. They planned to bring in the New Year with another couple that was going to met them at the resort.
"South Africa was great!" said the card, which arrived in Goldsboro a few weeks ago. "I'm going to Kenya and Cambodia this week, Then, I get to see Tim in Thailand."
Carol and Tim Massey lived in San Francisco. They were close to his brother who lives in San Diego. The brother from San Diego called Mrs. Massey Sunday night and said Carol's father had called him. He said Tim was all right, but Tim could not find Carol.
Tim Massey called his mother on Monday from the American embassy in Bangkok and told her how it happened.
On the beach, they saw the pandemonium. They couldn't see what was wrong but figured it might be related to terrorism.
"We just knew we'd better run," he told his mother.
He ran up to a porch in the back of a building and leapt up as high as he could. He looked back. His wife was not there. All he saw was a wave.
The building he was holding onto was being washed away. He managed to disengage and, along with others, he ran for the hills and took refuge behind some small mountains.
He called his mother Wednesday night and told her he had been to all the hospitals. He said the friends who were to meet them to celebrate the New Year were helping him look for her.
"He said, 'Mom, it's such a catastrophe. You can't find anybody. If Carol was all right, she'd call the cell phone.'"
They were both athletic, said Mrs. Massey. They enjoyed camping and hiking. They were in good physical shape.
"I don't know," said Mrs. Massey. "Maybe she fell down."
Carol Massey would often send her mother-in-law cards from their travels.
One day, Mrs. Massey went to the front door to find a dozen red roses. It was her son's birthday. The card said, "Thanks for bringing Tim to me. I'm so lucky."