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vacated the eighth coach. I remembered the lines from Tennysons The Charge of the Light Brigade:
...into the valley of death rode...
My heart pounded, my teeth chattered and I trembled with fear and cold as I gripped the window
bars of the compartments. Loosening my grip would mean certain death. Using every ounce of my
strength and with unswerving determination I struggled to save my life. With bruised palms I swayed
across four compartments and eventually reached the last compartment in the reassuring presence
of my aunt. She was a heroine.
Frightening hours
Being stranded there, waiting to be rescued with floodwaters on either side of the track, were the
most frightening hours of my life, observing a scene a human eye could never have seen. It has
haunted me all my life. The river bank was bathed in blood with human pulp, headless corpses,
severed limbs, torsos and heaps of bodies wrecked of lifes esteem.
After an anxious wait of about four hours, the floodwaters gradually abated. Finally, as the river
meekly meandered in its course and corpses bobbed in and out of water, we were rescued. A
locomotive arrived to tow us safely back to the Ariyalur station.
There were triumphant screams mingled with sadness for those lost in one of the worst disasters that
gripped a nation.
joycevernem@hotmail.com
( At the time of the accident, young Joyce Philomena was a clerk at the Golden Rock Railway
School in Tiruchi, newly recruited by Southern Railway. Two years later, she was tranferred to the
Divisional Railway Superintendent's office in Tiruchi. She married Clarence Vernem, a Guard with
Southern Railway, and moved to Madurai where she continued to work for the Railways until
opting for voluntary retirement from service in 1982.
The following year, Mr. Vernem passed away. She migrated to Australia in 1996 to join her two
children and their families. She now lives in Melbourne (right). Upon being contacted by The
Hindu on the phone on March 1 after she sent in her account to Open Page, Ms. Vernem (who
provided the details given here of herself) said she remained terrified of trains for years. She later
mustered the courage if only to watch passing trains, and would marvel at how brave the
passengers were !
After suffering nightmares and sleep-walking disorders, she eventually overcame her dread, and
often passed Ariyalur by train. A year shy of 80, she still occasionally takes the train in Australia,
and lives a very active life.