Here’s What Happened to Maria Belón After 'The Impossible'
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Back in 2012, Naomi Watts, Ewan McGregor and Tom Holland were among a group of actors to star in the disaster film, The Impossible, now streaming on Netflix. Telling the incredible true story of the Alvárez-Belón family, the film chronicled their struggle to survive the tragic 2004 earthquake-turned-tsunami as it ripped through much of Southeast Asia, killing over 200,000 people within the span of eight hours.
While the family went on to survive the aftermath of the deadliest tsunami in history while they vacationed in Thailand (where over 5,000 people were killed, including tourists), the film doesn’t necessarily reveal what happened to Maria Belón, the matriarch of the family. Though she’s last seen in the film being taken on an ambulance airplane to Singapore to receive medical treatment for the multiple injuries she received when being caught by the tsunami, there’s a lot more to learn about the real-life wonder woman who survived all odds amid the horrific event.
Here’s a little info about Maria Belón and where she is now:
Who is Maria Belón?
Born in Spain, Belón was a physician when the tsunami occurred. Vacationing with her husband Enrique Alvárez and sons Lucas, Tomás and Simón at the Orchid Resort Hotel in Khao Lak, Belón had been at the pool with her family on December 26th when she heard something major happening past the gates of where she was staying.
“We started to hear a very horrible sound,” she told The Mirror back in 2017. “I was looking around, thinking maybe this is just in my mind. No one heard the sound - it felt like Earth was coming apart, but everything looked perfect.”
Moments after the sound occurred, Belón and her family were swept into the Indian ocean, in between falling trees, debris and some dead bodies floating in the water. As she found herself a tree to hold on to after sustaining major injuries, Belón noticed her oldest son Lucas floating as well, giving her hope that the rest of the family made it out alive.
“Lucas and I were hugging this tree, mostly in silence, but from time to time, he would say, ‘I’m happy, Mommy, that you are with me,” the doctor told People in 2013 about the event. “It was one of the most beautiful moments of my life.”
The family eventually found their way back to each other some time later. While the men came out mostly unscathed physically, it was Belón who suffered the most injuries. She spent four months in a Singapore hospital post-tsunami, where she underwent sixteen surgeries and battled multiple infections. Emotionally, healing became a different story. With nightmares plaguing the family of what each one saw, it took six months for them to be able to go to sleep without keeping the lights on.
The true healing occurred when Belón became a consultant for the disaster film and went back with her family to the scene of the event in Thailand. There, they grieved for all the lives lost and finally gained closure for what happened on the fateful day.
“We had to go back with different feelings than how we left,” she told the L.A. Times in 2012. “We left feeling pain, shock. We needed to go back to that land, that place and say sorry for the moment we spent together.”
What happened to Maria Belón after the tsunami?
Belón is still a practicing physician. Her main focus though is to be a motivational speaker, traveling around the world and telling her story at various conferences. She also goes to a beach every year with her family on December 26th, commemorating the experience and to mourn those who died in the tragedy. But her biggest takeaway is how lucky she feels to be alive.
“My scars will be with me forever," she told People in 2013. "My whole story is on my body. And it is wonderful because it means I am alive.”
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