Here is a blog post from a friend of mine – scary stuff for her – particularly as a mother living away from her children – can you imagine what those two hours were like:-
Not Quite how I planned it…
My next blog was going to be hilariously funny and clever but recent events have changed all that. There is nothing funny about what I am going to write about. My lovely boys, Shaun, Philip and Robert as well as many, many friends live in Christchurch New Zealand. It was also my home until last year.
It all started for me when my Blackberry started to flash away at 3 in the morning, I’m still not quite sure why but I groggily opened an E mail from Cameron’s (our new vineyard manger’s) wife, Nikki. “Are your family all safe after the recent earthquake? many causalities!” it reads. Absolute panic! Two hours and many futile, frantic attempts to reach them later, my brother in Wellington miraculously tracks them down, thankfully all safe. It was the longest two hours of my life.
The morning drags on and I am transfixed to the news channel and I watch scenes of agony, anguish and destruction play out again and again, in a place I know and love so well. I’m getting more desperate to talk to my children, I keep trying and finally a lucky strike on one of my children’s mobiles means I catch them as they are evacuating the city and heading north, reassuringly they are laughing as they are in a queue to buy fish and chips but Phil’s story makes me shudder. He was alone in his father’s house, perched precariously on a spur overlooking the city and only 2 km from the epicentre. The earthquake makes it impossible for him to get out of the house which is coming down around him, water spurting everywhere as pipes rupture, he finally makes it to the driveway and then notices the blood pouring out of a gash on his foot. Luckily a couple of builders nearby have a first aid kit and stick him back together. He still has not been able to get any stitches put in it due to the bedlam at all the medical facilities.
But our story is a happy one, everyone is well and safe, and they have been offered somewhere to stay with power and water. But for thousands of brave Cantabrians this is not the case, they are sitting in makeshift shelters, many grieving for lost ones.
Now I promise I won’t make a habit of this but I’m going to beg….If you are touched by the plight of these people can you please, please make a donation to the Canterbury Earthquake Appeal.
And I also promise to cheer up and write a funny one next time if you do!!
Liz O’Neill (Mark’s gifted and talented PA)
The lucky ones!!
