By Saul Cooke-Black

THE PARENTS of a Stonehouse woman who was in Nepal during the earthquake were reunited with their daughter on Tuesday.

Sue Bohlen, from Stonehouse, had been frantically trying to find out news about her daughter Johanna, after she saw a letter posted on Facebook saying she had survived.

She then saw a video clip on YouTube in which she heard Johanna’s voice but could not see her daughter.

Johanna’s survival was finally confirmed when she spoke on the phone to her parents on Wednesday evening, April 29, for the first time since the disaster on Saturday, April 25.

Mrs Bohlen said: “I don’t know how we survived. The worry was just unimaginable.

“The messages we had been getting were confusing and difficult to follow. We saw the letter which had Johanna’s name on it but her boyfriend Fabian was not on the list.

“To hear her voice for the first time on Wednesday was amazing. It was the final step of confirmation that we needed. It is such a relief that they are both okay.”

At the time of the disaster Johanna had been just outside the village of Langtang, which was completely wiped out by the earthquake.

She was transferred to a shelter specially built for those caught up in the earthquake on Wednesday or Thursday, and even at this time there were continuous landslides in the region.

Mrs Bohlen said: “They are so lucky. If they had set off walking just an hour before, who knows what would have happened.

“It must have been a most terrible time. They would have witnessed huge tragedy and massive loss of life.

“We reach out to those with loved ones still missing.”

Sue said Johanna sounded strong when they spoke on the phone and suggested she would like to go back to help the Nepalese people.

She said: “There is a project called Help Rural Nepal which helps the community to build schools. It sounded as though Johanna has a desire to go back and help, certainly in some way.

“As a family we now feel very connected with the future of Nepal.”

On Friday Johanna was airlifted from the shelter to a safer location in Kathmandu where she has been staying in an open shelter.

Mrs Bohlen added: “She has spent the last five nights in the freezing cold. We are just looking forward to seeing her and getting her a comfy bed in the warm.”