Missing Teacher In Japan Calls Mom
CHICAGO (CBS) -- For six days, a Chicago couple couldn't sleep because they had no idea if their son, a teacher in Japan, was dead or alive. But on Friday, Edward "Corey" Clemons finally got in touch with his parents to let them know he'd survived last week's earthquake and tsunami.
A CNN news crew had tracked Clemons down in the small town of Hachinohe and let him use their phone to call his mom. Edward called his mother Friday morning, a week after the earthquake and tsunami that wracked Japan, where he is working as a teacher.
"I was just happy to hear his voice. I kept saying, 'I love you. I love you. I love you. Are you safe?'" his mother, Cynthia Young, told CBS 2's Kristyn Hartman. "I'm so happy!"
Clemons, 25, has been teaching English in Japan for nearly three years. He'd been missing since shortly after the earthquake and tsunami devastated the town near Sendai, where he is living.
Anthony Young, Cynthia's spouse, said that receiving word that Edward had survived felt like the greatest of gifts.
"Really emotional. … Had I been a little bit better, I probably would have done a flip myself," he said.
Cynthia Young wasn't able to go on camera earlier Friday because she'd finally gone to bed after being unable to sleep for nearly a week.
But now all that worry has been replaced with anticipation of the homecoming to come.
The excitement and joy is tempered a bit by the knowledge that there are other people in Japan and other colleagues of their son who have not yet been found and who will never go home again.
"When you look at the devastation that goes on over there and all of that loss, it really just tears your heart apart," Anthony Young said.
