![](https://imageresizer.static9.net.au/Kb5XGHBN2M5SOnA1-yTdzBCLTWc=/750x0/https%3A%2F%2F1.800.gay%3A443%2Fhttps%2Fcf-images.ap-southeast-2.prod.boltdns.net%2Fv1%2Fstatic%2F664969388001%2F7059a1d2-c8f3-4eaa-82a5-f43b764a4360%2Fb35f7da1-dcf2-45d5-b664-1c67c5f38cd0%2F640x360%2Fmatch%2Fimage.jpg)
Sometimes you simply can’t find the words to encapsulate a feeling or a moment in time.
Other times, there’s a quote, a poem, a song - even a single line of lyrics - that says everything so perfectly; it’s almost as though it was written for this very occasion.
This was one of those times.
“Imagine there’s no countries … The world will be as one.”
Those words were delivered by an ecstatic and very relieved member of the rescue team, when he launched into an impromptu and heartfelt rendition of John Lennon’s Imagine during our interview in the moments after the final boy had been pulled from the Tham Laung Cave in Northern Thailand.
![Alice Monfries reported every moment of the rescue on the ground in Thailand
.](https://imageresizer.static9.net.au/vNRW7E_JJM-9auvosd4Sh_GcV_w=/500x0/https%3A%2F%2F1.800.gay%3A443%2Fhttps%2Fprod.static9.net.au%2F_%2Fmedia%2FNetwork%2FHome%2FStreams%2F2018%2F07%2F16%2F18%2F49%2F160718thairescuealice2.jpg)
![Suthee Sommart has become an overnight sensation in Thailand.](https://imageresizer.static9.net.au/hpMPfhUepEoIOHIwd3tq4P_ovoE=/500x0/https%3A%2F%2F1.800.gay%3A443%2Fhttps%2Fprod.static9.net.au%2F_%2Fmedia%2FNetwork%2FHome%2FStreams%2F2018%2F07%2F16%2F18%2F49%2F160718thairescue1alice.jpg)
It instantly gave me goosebumps - and even now, reflecting days later, that moment makes my heart swell.
And it obviously also struck a chord with millions of Thai locals, and observers the world over.
The clip has gone viral in Asia, shared and viewed millions of times.
And the rescuer, Suthee Sommart, has become an overnight sensation.
On arriving back in his home province, he was invited to perform the iconic hit with the district governor.
A beautiful moment that I just have to share below:
![](https://imageresizer.static9.net.au/rHZ7cEcvNzFrcwKWCEDWxhce2nU=/750x0/https%3A%2F%2F1.800.gay%3A443%2Fhttps%2Fcf-images.ap-southeast-2.prod.boltdns.net%2Fv1%2Fstatic%2F664969388001%2F6797477f-2c65-4c0a-9855-5261a920a382%2Fb1bc013d-03d1-4df6-bb46-e3fbee2a10ac%2F640x360%2Fmatch%2Fimage.jpg)
Why did this unplanned, impromptu celebration through song resonate with so many people right around the globe?
I think it’s because with those few words, Suthee encapsulated what has been at the heart of this incredible story - the very best of humanity.
The enormous, multinational rescue mission had a crew of more than a thousand people working 24 hours a day.
The best experts from around the world - in diving, adventure caving, medicine, engineering, planning and disaster recovery - scrambled to offer their knowledge, skills and expertise.
The world’s best, from right around the globe, were working side by side, against time, against the looming monsoon season and the rising water levels, to get those 12 boys and their coach out safely and home with their families.
Even those without specialist skills volunteered their help in any way they could.
Cooking food, delivering water, donating socks and clothing to rescuers and media, offering lifts to and from the cave site, offering gumboots, mosquito repellent and sunscreen, even offering massages.
And more than three thousand volunteers, including hundreds of children, registered their names to help with the clean-up of the site in the aftermath.
Then there’s the love, prayers, thoughts and well-wishes from the millions more watching this story unfold around the globe.
What an incredible example of people coming together - nationalities, politics and religion aside - to achieve a mission that was initially declared “impossible”.
It truly is humanity at its best and a perfect example of what John Lennon sang about back in the 70s.
“Imagine there’s no countries ... The world will be as one”.
It’s not often we have stories that grip the entire world the way in which this incredible rescue mission did.
It’s even rarer that such an enormous, global event or story has such a positive, uplifting and fulfilling outcome.
![Alice Monfries working tirelessly in Thailand. (Supplied)](https://imageresizer.static9.net.au/nOg_AFuLv6xGgJDREQwlEwfwixg=/500x0/https%3A%2F%2F1.800.gay%3A443%2Fhttps%2Fprod.static9.net.au%2F_%2Fmedia%2F2018%2F07%2F16%2F19%2F51%2F160718_monf7_sp.jpg)
While this story began in a tiny rural settlement outside Chiang Rai very few people had visited or heard of, it very quickly became one the entire world was heavily invested in.
From the second those first pictures were aired showing the moment the boys were discovered alive after a long nine-and-a-half days alone underground, we were completely captivated by their situation.
We didn’t know those 12 young boys and their coach, but we felt as though we did.
Parents across Australia, across the world could picture their own little children in such a terrifying situation
Trapped, underground, in a dark wet cave, with rising water - no ability to swim and no easy way out.
We saw their faces. Those wide smiles. They looked weak, but calm. And we wondered how could they be smiling after all they’d been through and we were amazed by their strength and bravery. Especially at an age as young as 11, through to 16.
We read the letters they wrote to their mums and dads:
![Massive local support showed up to cheer for the rescue team.](https://imageresizer.static9.net.au/NhSlxNcubE2SAEEbyj7yJdio5v0=/500x0/https%3A%2F%2F1.800.gay%3A443%2Fhttps%2Fprod.static9.net.au%2F_%2Fmedia%2FNetwork%2FHome%2FStreams%2F2018%2F07%2F16%2F18%2F49%2F160718thairescuemediapa.jpg)
“Please, don’t forget my birthday.”
“Please have my favourite meal ready.”
“Please don’t worry about me.”
And we read perhaps the most heart breaking letter of all, from the 25-year-old coach.
Apologising to those parents for the torment they’d been through and vowing to protect the boys until the very last moment inside that cave.
But it was reading the words of those poor parents back to their children that hit me the hardest during my coverage of this story. Reading them aloud on air, it was difficult to keep my emotions in check: “We are waiting for you. Be strong, be brave.”
They were waiting. Keeping vigil every moment of every day outside the mouth of that cave.
![Some of the world's media as the Thai cave rescue drama unfolded. (Supplied)](https://imageresizer.static9.net.au/XS8ylK9qYrjPMGnpMeimKK3Xs3E=/500x0/https%3A%2F%2F1.800.gay%3A443%2Fhttps%2Fprod.static9.net.au%2F_%2Fmedia%2F2018%2F07%2F16%2F19%2F52%2F160718_monf1_sp.jpg)
What a position of helplessness.
Only able to communicate with their children via letters.
We all felt their helplessness, and we all understood how high the stakes were in this rescue.
It was a double-edged sword.
We knew how dangerous and risky it was to pull the boys out through the flooded sections of cave, but leaving them there wasn’t an alternative.
Monsoonal rains kept threatening and the prospect of the cave flooding further and the boy’s safe refuge being impacted, was very real.
Some of the rescuers spoke about the bliss of being a child.
They don’t think about what can go wrong, they just cope. They’re very resilient, they said.
But I think it was the very fact that they were children, such young children, that gripped the world’s attention.
![Constant updates being sent back to Australian audiences from Thailand. (Supplied)](https://imageresizer.static9.net.au/jbY_ZXGthfGMy5USDGhZ_RTL6uA=/500x0/https%3A%2F%2F1.800.gay%3A443%2Fhttps%2Fprod.static9.net.au%2F_%2Fmedia%2F2018%2F07%2F16%2F19%2F52%2F160718_monf6_sp.jpg)
Every parent could imagine their own children in such a perilous situation.
I asked Suthee Sommart - the now famous singing rescuer - about why he believes his moment in the spotlight went viral, and why this story itself has completely captivated the globe.
He said, “It’s just like the song says - at the end of the day, we are all the same, we are all as one.
“Here in Thailand we might eat different food to you, but we breathe the same air.
“We laugh the same, we smile the same.
“In the world right now, sometimes it’s confusing, a lot of bad things are happening.
“But this story, the boys, it shows most people in the world have a good heart. They care.”
Then for good measure, he wrapped up our conversation with a final few lines of song: “Imagine, all the people, living life in peace”.
It’s a funny thing, the imagination.
![Thai rescue captured 'the very best of humanity', Alice Monfries says. (Supplied)](https://imageresizer.static9.net.au/jkUoCZmqx4FCJCit3oEpTsrQ0-c=/500x0/https%3A%2F%2F1.800.gay%3A443%2Fhttps%2Fprod.static9.net.au%2F_%2Fmedia%2F2018%2F07%2F16%2F19%2F52%2F160718_monf3_sp.jpg)
There are reports that the movie scripts are already being written up for the films that will no doubt be made about this incredible story of survival, international collaboration and above all, humanity.
But the facts in this story are more remarkable than one could possibly have dreamed up for a Hollywood fiction plot.
We never could have imagined such an incredible moment in history.
And it’s difficult to imagine when we’ll see another quite like it.