Newlyweds thankful for escape

Newlyweds thankful for escape

Zakki Hakim, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

"I have had a glimpse of hell. Well, sort of," said Zaenal
Abidin, 29, whose arms were burned in last week's JW Marriott
Hotel blast.

He was in the Sailendra Restaurant located off the hotel's
lobby when the blast occurred just few meters from where he
stood.

"I heard a big bang and suddenly I was surrounded by a
fireball," Zaenal told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday at Pertamina
Central Hospital in South Jakarta, where he is hospitalized.

He said that at that very moment he thought of God and wished
for more time with his wife, Salmah, 21, whom he married on June
24, approximately six weeks before the blast, and to see his
child born. Salmah is thought to be two weeks' pregnant.

He feels grateful, as though he has been given a second
chance.

"I will be more pious from now on," he said.

Twelve people were killed and 147 others injured in the
Marriott blast, the fifth bombing to have rocked the capital this
year.

Death can strike at anytime and at any place, and Zaenal had
been trying to avoid public places ever since the Bali bombing in
October last year.

"Now I'll avoid them even more," he said.

Zaenal, an engineer at PT Dharma Muda Pratama oil company, was
treating a group of clients to lunch at the restaurant.

"I always thought that the area around the hotel was quite
safe until last week," said the engineer, whose office is located
at Menara Rajawali, just a block from the hotel.

After the blast, Zaenal was particularly worried about his
wife, because he was afraid that just a little stress could cause
a miscarriage.

He said he and his wife had yet to have a honeymoon because
they still had to visit a number of relatives in Jakarta.

Zaenal said that according to the doctors, he would have to
stay in the hospital for another month to treat the burns on his
arms, nape, the crown of his head and his left ear. He was also
wounded on his left arm and in the abdomen.

It will take another two months of total rest for him to
regain his strength and the use of him arms.

"Next month, after I get out of the hospital, my wife and I
will stay at my parents house in Bangil, East Java," he said.

"Perhaps that will be our honeymoon," he said, with his wife
looking on.

"Well, looking on the bright side, we don't have to spend our
honeymoon in a hotel room. Instead we have a first-class room in
this hospital," he said, grimacing in pain at his injuries for a
moment.