Friends, kin celebrate Kali's life, light

In a memorial Tuesday, the grieving Breisch family honored thousands of tsunami victims, including their 15-year-old daughter Kali, who was killed in Thailand.

They celebrated the life Kali lived and the "light" she left behind.

Hundreds of fellow Skyline High School students, community and family members gathered at Kingsbury Hall to pay their respects to Kali in what some say was the most moving program they had ever seen.

"Our Kali was a comic, an artist, a writer and a loyal friend," Sally Nelson said during a tearful program and candlelight ceremony.

Nelson married Kali's father, Stuart Breisch, last week before the family returned to the states.

She read a poem Kali wrote last fall about the death of her mother, who died of cancer nearly 12 years ago. Nelson said the words were somewhat prophetic to the end of Kali's own life.

"A thousand tears drenched my nightgown — a tsunami of tears. I was gasping for air. I could taste the salt running past my lips and I cried some more. . . . I knew that she had to leave, that there was no other option. But upon leaving, she left a hole. A hole in my life, a hole in my heart, a hole that could never be filled. And all that was left was the light."

The family was staying in the Thailand resort area of Khao Lak when the tsunami hit the day after Christmas. Kali and her 16-year-old brother Jai were in a bungalow that was destroyed by a huge wave. Jai was carried more than half a mile away and spent more than a week in a Bangkok hospital.

Kali's father, Nelson and Kali's 18-year-old sister Shonti were out at sea on a dive boat at the time and escaped injury. The family returned to Utah on Saturday.

Jai, who was with Kali in her final moments, spoke of his last day with Kali and of the nightmarish days that followed. The musically talented family performed and spoke of the "sacred charge of honoring the spirit of our global family."

"My hope is that the world will come together as a result of this experience — I am not going to call it a tragedy — it's an opportunity to come together and break through the barriers," Stuart Breisch said.

"For us to have survived is more than a miracle . . . and perhaps being able to share that experience with you and others around the world may have something to do with it, I'm not sure. What happens is meant to be, always, and all that is left is for us to trust."

The family has set up a foundation, www.4kali.org, to help tsunami victims in Khao Lak, an area Stuart said was most devastated. He said 100 percent of the donations will go to the victims.

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E-mail: terickson@desnews.com