It was a beautiful, sunny day in the historic colonial city of Ambato, Ecuador. Accompanied by our nanny, we had gone to the Ambato River to wade in the shallow, gently flowing waters. In one of the most heavily hit towns, Pelileo — where no homes were left standing — only 300 of 3,500 survived. One of these churches, Ambato’s Iglesia Matriz, collapsed when the main earthquake hit, killing 70 children and a priest. On that day in August 1949, our parents picked us up from the river very soon after the earthquake hit.