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'You are safe now': Mother of rescued Thai boy tells of emotional reunion in interview

MAE SAI (Thailand) — The waiting had been unbearable. Through a protective glass at the hospital ward, 35-year-old Chanta Jaingim gazed at her 13-year-old son, tears streaming down her cheeks. She could see his eyes scanning her face.

Duangpetch Promthep (in yellow jersey), 13, one of the 12 boys rescued from a cave in northern Thailand,  with his siblings.

Duangpetch Promthep (in yellow jersey), 13, one of the 12 boys rescued from a cave in northern Thailand, with his siblings.

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MAE SAI (Thailand) — The waiting had been unbearable. Through a protective glass at the hospital ward, 35-year-old Chanta Jaingim gazed at her 13-year-old son, tears streaming down her cheeks. She could see his eyes scanning her face.

Finally, she was close to him, but she still could not touch him yet.

While the 12 boys and their football coach trapped in a Thai cave had waited 17 days to be rescued, their families had to endure even more.

At the hospital, Ms Chanta and other parents of the boys could only see their children from a distance. Doctors were still concerned about their health and the risk of them catching infections as they recuperated.

They were rescued last Tuesday on July 10, but it was only several days later on Sunday that the authorities finally allowed the parents to meet their sons up close.

Upon entering the ward on Sunday, Ms Chanta ran towards her son, Duangpetch Promthep, calling out his name. Tears flowed as they held each other in a long embrace.

"When I looked into his eyes, I could see he was crying, too. I hugged him and kissed him," she told TODAY. "I said to him, 'Be strong. You are out now, you are safe now'.

It had been an emotional few weeks for Ms Chanta: From the shock of learning that her boy went missing, to the agony of not knowing if he would come out alive from the cave, and then, huge relief.

The boys, aged 11 to 17, were from a football team named "Wild Boars". They and their 25-year-old coach had been trapped inside the flooded Tham Luang cave in Chiang Rai province, northern Thailand, since June 23.

They had wandered into the deep and complex cave after football practice, celebrating the birthday of the oldest boy, only for flood waters to cut off their route and trap them in one of the cave chambers.

They had spent nine days in the cave when British divers found them on July 2.

About 10,000 people took part in the international rescue operation that gripped a global audience, and on July 10, the last trapped person was extricated and saved after a two-part rescue mission.

Since then, interviews with the boys and their parents have been restricted by the authorities, who are concerned about the impact of overwhelming media attention on them. Thai authorities said that a press conference will be held with the boys and their coach on Wednesday (July 18), the day they are to be discharged from the hospital.

On Tuesday, in the border town of Mae Sai, TODAY caught up with Ms Chanta at the family-run grocery store in the main market, where she recounted how she first found out something had gone wrong.

Ms Chanta runs a grocery store in Mae Sai. Photo: Nuria Ling/TODAY

On June 23, she had called Duangpetch on his mobile phone, but it went unanswered. She thought he could have been at a football practice, but she had an "uneasy feeling" and remembered asking herself: "What happened to my son today?"

Duangpetch is the second of three children from Ms Chanta's first marriage. She would call him daily, spending over an hour each time on the phone. Ms Chanta has two other children from her second marriage.

'I CRIED UNTIL I FAINTED'

Two days later, she received a call, but not from the person she expected to hear. Her sister phoned to inform her that Duangpetch was trapped in a cave.

Ms Chanta took the first flight to Chiang Rai and headed straight to the site. "I cried until I fainted. The doctors asked that I don't stay in the area and to go home," she said.

For more than a week, she was in anguish, wondering if her son was alive. "When they couldn't find my son, I couldn't stand it," she said. "I felt like just walking into the cave. I was thinking to myself, I'm going to rescue my son."

On July 2, British divers finally found the boys and their coach, who had survived by drinking water that had condensed on the cave walls.

"When I watched the news, I (realised it was) really true (that they had been found). So I screamed and just cried," she said.

Duangpetch's paternal grandmother Kamei Promthep, who is in her 60s, said that the boy told her during the hospital visit that they went into the cave for a "quick trip", but soon, "water started to fill it up".

The coach, Mr Ekkapol "Ake" Chantawong, tried to find a way out. He told the boys to tie a rope around him and he would dive to look for an exit route. He resurfaced shortly after that. "Coach Ake told the kids that there was too much water," the grandmother said.

To escape the rising waters, they went deeper into the cave. That was when they got stuck, she added.

"He (Duangpetch) said that during the first four days, he was so hungry that he felt like dying. But afterwards, he stopped feeling hungry."

Duangpetch said that the coach told the boys to meditate during their time in the cave.

As the family waits in anticipation of him leaving the hospital, Ms Kamei said that they will be preparing her grandson's favourite food when he returns home: Skewered barbecued pork.

She said: "I felt that the whole world cared about the boys, and wished that they be saved, no matter how hard it was. Everyone was so persistent, and took them out of there."

While the boys had their parents by their side, it was not the case for their coach, who lost his parents at a young age.

PRAYED AND PRAYED AGAIN

The coach's uncle Charoenpong Rattanaweerachon, 52, told TODAY that he tried to visit Mr Ekkapol in hospital but had been denied entry. He did not want to disclose the reason, but said that his nephew was "in good hands".

"When I couldn't get to meet him, I would pray that I will get to see him the next day," he added. "The next day, if I couldn't meet him, then I would pray again. It has been like this."

Following his parents' death, due to illness which Mr Charoenpong could not specify, the coach lived with his grandmother in a neighbourhood in Mae Sai that is about 20 minutes from the Tham Luang cave.

At the age of 11, he was ordained to be a Buddhist monk and lived in a temple just five minutes away from his grandmother's house.

His grandmother's worsening health forced him to evaluate his decision to become a monk, for he wanted to care for her.

Mr Charoenpong said of his nephew: "He is very polite, well-mannered and obliging. When he does anything, he will be very determined."

Mr Charoenpong Rattanaweerachon, the uncle of "Wild Boars" assistant coach Ekkapol "Ake" Chantawong. Photo: Nuria Ling/TODAY

Two to three years ago, Mr Ekkapol somehow got interested in football and started to coach children in the sport. His uncle said that he would at times drop off the boys at their homes after practice.

When news broke that he was trapped in the cave, they were hopeful that he would apply the knowledge acquired during his monkhood for survival.

Mr Ekkapol's grandmother, who was glued to the television screen watching news of the rescue efforts, cheered out loud when she learnt that he was finally saved. His uncle captured that moment of great elation on his mobile phone.

Mr Ekkapol's instruction to the boys to do meditation was credited by others as helping the group survive the ordeal, but the uncle said that his nephew "was not the hero".

"He was doing what he could. He, too, was trapped. Those divers who rescued them are the heroes," Mr Charoenpong said.

Mr Ekkapol's grandmother was down with fever when TODAY visited her home, but Mr Charoenpong said that she is "eagerly waiting for (her grandson's) homecoming".

"She's hoping she can recover in time to welcome him back. She's the one planning for his return. She wants to cook fried rice with basil and fried pork, his favourite dish," Mr Charoenpong said with a smile.

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