By Hilary Barry
In Samoa, they have prayed and sung and mourned.
It's a year to the day since the tsunami - that moment when the ocean was sucked from the reefs only to come racing back in, claiming the lives of more than a 140 people.
And it's not over yet. Today another life was blamed on the tsunami.
The tsunami survivors marched along the coast at dawn.
Those who were born in Samoa were joined by those who were visiting when the waves struck.
Eighty people died at Lalomanu, including 49 Samoans and 31 tourists.
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Melissa Tapelu lost her sister and mother.
“It’s been really hard, I couldn't believe it when it happened, and then you come to the place where it happened,” she says.
Tauranga woman Helen Parry suffered terrible injuries from the tsunami. It still haunts her.
“I’ve been reliving it since I’ve been back. [I] saw the place where I was running for my life - that was really difficult.”
It's been a distressing year for Rosalia Polapaivao. 3 News spoke to her last year as she searched through the rubble for the bodies of her relatives - 14 of them died.
“The pain is still there you just can’t get rid of it, but sometimes we cry out [and] let it out through our tears,” she says.
New Zealanders Lyn and Kerry Martin came to Lalomanu to remember their daughters Petria and Rebekah. Despite their family tragedy, they say others have suffered even more.
“The Samoan people that live here, our grief doesn't compare to theirs. These people have lost their livelihoods, their children, their granddads and they look at the sea every day,” says Kerry Martin.
The beach is once again beautiful, the tourists have returned, but for those who lost friends and relatives it will always be a place of sadness.
3 News