I have just watched the documentary on ABC Television about the ‘Black Saturday’ bushfires in Victoria three years ago. “Then the Wind Blows” is the story of the Strathewen community and how it got entirely wiped out.
It’s a powerful story, extremely well told, with images that I am sure will always be in my mind and hopefully always help me to appreciate the important things in life.
One of these is the opening scene where a young mother, father and two young children survived by sheltering between two water tanks. It appears that the tanks protected them from the massive inferno. What struck me was that Bronwyn Sparks (the mother) actually had a smile on her face whilst Shane (her husband) was almost inconsolable.
I can’t imagine what it must be like to even be near such a fire tornado, let alone feel that you and your children are about to be incinerated alive. I wondered why Bronwyn had a smile, and why Shane in contrast was so upset. I can only surmise that Bronwyn realised that her family would survive. On the other hand, Shane may have felt that he had failed in his ultimate role as “protector”, or maybe he despaired at the thought of how he would provide in the future. I have no idea what caused him to shed tears, but whatever it was, it was deeply important to him.
Another aspect of the documentary that struck me was how their daughter Lola struggled for a while after Black Saturday. That in itself is not surprising and neither is the fact that psychologically it had a major impact. Apparently Lola blamed Bronwyn and Shane for not getting the family to safety. “Why didn’t you get us out?” she said. The pain of that comment for a parent is impossible to describe. To some extent it goes to the very heart of what it means to be a parent. Although neither Bronwyn or Shane mentioned how it felt, I have no doubt that after what they had been through, it must have been incredibly hard to deal with.
And so the relief and joy that they must have felt when a psychologist was able to work successfully with Lola to deal with this trauma would have been priceless – literally. What that psychologist did was a service not only for Lola, not only for the family, not only for their immediate community but also for the whole of society. Ironically I am sure Lola will grow up to be a wonderful human being and in some way her experience at this very young age, from both the trauma of that inferno as well as the lessons learned from a highly trained compassionate, experienced and independent professional will enhance her as a human being.
What price quality, independent advice? It can be absolutely life-changing.
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