PHILLIPA KING

I’m rather embarrassed to confess, I was lying on the sofa watching Jeremy Kyle and then the surprise of it, like a sort of sneak attack. You think everything is back to the way it was and then boom; once more the world as we know it has shifted. The only comparison I can make is when I came home from the hospital with Harry, when he was a baby, and realizing that this is it. I’m now a mother and you can’t go back, your life is never going to be the same. I mean, we were having jolts every now and then just to remind us, but perhaps it’s a human trait to expect our life to continue in a certain way. Maybe what the earthquakes have taught us is that we have no control over what happens, that we can take nothing for granted?

Outside there was the despair we’ve all felt of watching the liquefaction erupt once more. That sinking feeling that slips into your soul. Anyway, there was nothing else for it but to get back into the gumboots and with the help of the kids and friends begin the immense effort of digging yourself out. Somehow, this all seemed to bring out both the best and the worst in people. I found it incredibly frustrating to have the sightseers and nosey-parkers coming by just to look at you. I can appreciate people wanting to understand what’s happening, but not if they’re just driving past with a coffee in their hand simply having a gawk. One car speeding past splashed me all over, totally covered me in liquefaction. In the scheme of things, a trivial thing really, but apparently at the time my language was not what it should have been. All I could think of was when will I be able to wash my hair again. We were wearing the same clothes day after day and of course no shower. In the end though, it’s amazing what you can do with one little basin of hot water.

The other side to that story, the best part, happened on our second or third day of shovelling. Two guys driving by just stopped and asked if we needed a hand. We got a lot done that day and of course we gave them a beer to say thank you. But the thing is, to this day, I don’t know who they were, or why they stopped? My guess is simple kindness. For many of us, the things we focus on have changed. Things that used to be important no longer occupy the center stage. We’ve all been reminded that people, life, looking out for one another; those are the things that should always be at the top of our list.