Card from Thailand adds to heartbreak | Canterbury News | Local News in Canterbury

The stepfather of missing Christchurch tsunami victim Belinda Welch has received an eerie message from her ? a postcard she wrote from a Thai beach just days before the wave hit.

The postcard, which says Belinda and husband Andrew, also missing, were relaxing and having fun arrived at stepfather John Croft's home on Wednesday. It was postmarked December 23, three days before it is assumed they were killed at Khao Lak Beach.

"It gave me a funny feeling. You know they are actually dead, but then you start thinking they could still be alive. If you didn't know about the tsunami everything would seem the same as usual," Croft said.

He said the pair, who had been married for three years, were extremely close despite their 15-year age difference and it was probably best they had died together.

"They were a very close couple. They became as one and they couldn't have been separated. The other one wouldn't have survived," Croft said.

He travelled to Auckland for a memorial service today for Andrew, 41, and Belinda, 26. Andrew was from Auckland.

On Monday another service will be held at the Spreydon Baptist Church for the couple.

Belinda was a Baptist pastor in Auckland before travelling overseas. The couple had planned to become involved in charity work in Asia.

Croft was struck with a strange feeling when he got his mail on Wednesday. The postcard had a picture of a very beautiful Khao Lak Beach, nothing like the television pictures which now show devastation.

"She wrote they were enjoying the sun and reading down at the beach," he said.

Belinda also sent a postcard to her younger sister Emma, which arrived at the same time on Wednesday.

Andrew's family received a postcard handwritten by him the same day.

His father, Terry Welch, said it was heartbreaking collecting it from the mailbox.

"An arrow was on it pointing out where they were staying," he said. The postcard said it was lovely warm weather. "And that was one of the worst hit places," Welch said.

Earlier in the day a large parcel arrived by courier, sent from Singapore by Andrew and Belinda. It was full of brochures and mementos from their European tour which they wanted to have kept safely until their return to New Zealand.

Belinda lived in Christchurch until she was 20. She attended New Brighton Catholic School and Marian College.

An inter-faith service, which will include a nationwide minute of silence at 1.59pm, will be held in Cathedral Square on Sunday afternoon to remember the victims of the Boxing Day earthquake and tsunami. It will start at 1.15pm.