Parents await return of kids stuck on stranded ship

MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) - Two mothers, who are in town from Texas, told FOX10 News they are desperately awaiting the arrival of their kids, who are aboard the fire-damaged Carnival Cruise in the Gulf of Mexico.

Both mothers said it’s been three days since they’ve have any communication with their daughters.  A recorded voice mail message is the only way Mary Poret can hear her 12-year-old's voice.

 She left her daughter Rebekah a message while FOX10 News cameras rolled Wednesday.

 "Hey baby, it's momma. I love you. I miss you. I'm going to see you real soon. Bye," Poret told her daughter on the phone.   

"It's tough. It's really hard," she said.

Poret waits for her 12-year-old on the Mobile pier. Her daughter is on the Triumph, making its way to the port city at what feels like a snail's pace for the mother.

The last time Mary heard Rebekah's voice, she was frantic following the fire that left the ship inoperable.

 "She said to me, 'Mommy, I'm so scared I'll never get to see you again.' She really thought that she might never get to see me again after a fire on the ship," Poret said.  "You sit for hours, and you don't know [anything]."

What she did know was sitting in her Texas home waiting wasn't going to cut it.

Mary made the drive early Tuesday morning, and she didn't come alone.

Mary's friend Kim McKerreghan awaits her 10-year-old Allie Taylor, who joined Rebekah on the cruise.

"As a mom, you hurt," McKerreghan said.  "You feel it in your heart, your stomach knots up and you just fall over. And then you pick yourself up, and you say, 'I'm going to be there when my daughter gets off this ship.’ So she knows that I have been with her all the way."

Both girls are with their dads, but their mothers worry about the conditions on the hot and humid ship, where the wait for food is said to be long, and working bathrooms are said to be hard to find.

Nightmarish conditions for the mothers to think about, but they're staying positive, and one thought gets them through.

"But I know, me being here, every moment that ship gets closer, every moment my baby girl gets closer, and every moment she's closer to getting on that pier and coming to me," McKerreghan said.  "So, I'm counting it down."