Chicago Area Man Travels To Japan To Find Wife, Kids
GLEN ELLYN, Ill. (CBS) -- A Glen Ellyn man took matters into his own hands after the earthquake and tsunami hit the small Japanese village where his wife and two sons were living earlier this month.
Andrew Breun hopped a plane to go find them. CBS 2's Pamela Jones recounts his incredible journey.
His wife, Patty Breun, was teaching English in Kesennuma at the time of the disaster. Although Andrew knew his family was alive, the scenes of devastation he saw back home pushed him to get on a plane to find her and their two boys, Drew, 13, and Benjamin, 10.
"I didn't sleep, really, through several days until I actually got to Japan," he said.
Once in Japan, he got on a bus to get to his family. He went through snow, and washed-out roads.
"It was dead quiet," he said.
In his wife's village, the family was barely getting by with help from neighbors. There was no electricity or water or gas.
"It was really cold. It was so cold," Patty said.
She says the worst part was meeting so many friends who lost loved ones in the tsunami.
She greeted one woman and asked how she was.
"And she said, 'My husband was killed in the tsunami,' Patty Breun said. "And I don't know what to say. Because there are no words you can use."
Saying goodbye to the students to whom she taught English is also something the family won't forget.
"I still care about all of them," she said.
The family left Kesennuma March 17. Patty wants to finish her teaching contract and teach for three more months. They'd spent the last 20 months in Japan.
