Gutted

What a weekend it has been.

Even though I live halfway around the other side of the world, I cannot help but feel effected by the devastation of the bushfires in country Victoria.  The number of lives lost is shockingly high and that is just the human lives.  I hate to think about all the livestock and other animals and birds that have also died during the past few days.

I grew up and have spent most of my adult life in Victoria.  I love summer, I always have, but there were always things I did not like about summer, especially growing up in the country.  My first fear would be the number of snakes you might see out in the garden basking in the sun (a little too close to the house), the influx of Huntsman spiders inside the house (*shudder*) and the constant threat of bushfires.  As our family home is in an area where there is 'bush' aplenty,  the smell of smoke or the sound of the local fire alarm whining would send shivers down one's spine.  

I remember one dreadfully hot summer (back in like 1980 or something) when there was a roaring fire directly down the road from our family property.  There was an immediate threat to our home and I remember my mum packing up the car (Datsun Sunny?) with photographs, our new doonas (!) and the family pets.  Just in case.  

We were well prepared for bushfire season from that summer onward.  My dad would do his best to clear out the gutters regularly (a brave feat for a man who is scared of heights - sorry dad, spilling the beans there!), long grass was no longer an issue around the house, hoses were always on standby and the photo albums waited in a blue crate.

Fingers crossed that the area I know and love is never affected by bushfire.  

My dad is a CFA (Country Fire Authority) volunteer, so any bushfire and he is usually there.  He has the full kit (including the braces) and tries his best to be on standby most times.  In times like these he is there doing the hard yards, with the thousands of other CFA volunteers across the state.  These guys honestly risk their lives, this I know you know.  

Reading article after article and watching on the television about the fires in Victoria is so very sad and shocking and I have shed many a tear.   

If the shock and devestation of these stories filtering through wasn't enough to make me cry, (including the loss of Brian Naylor, old TV anchorman), the email I got in my inbox this morning was.

Remember a couple of weeks I mentioned that one of my cousins had taken his own life?  Now I find out that on the weekend my younger cousin did a 'copycat' suicide.  (Not a brother of the previous cousin, but a cousin like me.) I feel gutted, shocked, beyond words.  I cannot understand this selfish act and are more upset for his parents, with whom we were once very close with (growing up wise).  I know my sister too is upset and we are all in shock.  My thoughts are currently with too many people, but especially Ron, Rae, Kate and my cousin's ex-wife, child and current life partner.  :-( 

Hug your child a little closer tonight.  Thank our lucky stars we are all safe and well and pray (even if I am not the praying kind) for the victims of the Victorian bushfires.