After way too much social distancing from my husband the last two weeks due to fencing on the farm, I decided to visit him today for our wedding anniversary to give each other a much needed hug, drop off many frozen meals, look at the cleaned up house site and support him in all the hard work he’s done for weeks now.
Yesterday our family home of 12 years, the house my husband’s grandparents built in the 1950s and 3 generations of the Davis family had lived in, was finally cleaned up by the official government funded asbestos clean up team more than 2 months after we lost it during the biggest bushfire disaster Kangaroo Island has ever seen.
Seeing the house gone brings up many emotions. Sadness on one hand that THIS IS IT, our house is GONE, all memories burned and cleaned and buried in a big hole on the island together with lots of our friends’ memories. There is no going back, there is no saving it anymore, we have to let go. And relief on the other that it is FINALLY gone and we can move on. Not look at it anymore every time we arrive for a new clean up and rebuild day on the farm. Not look at it anymore stunned that this really happened to us. And to so many of our neighbours and friends.
It was time. Time to move on, time to look into the future, never forget but stop to grieve and be excited for the new things to come.
We’ve had 8 wonderful married years so far, this one is the most challenging one for us but after the fires I know that nothing can break us.
Tell your family every day what they mean to you. Today could be your last day or theirs. Love is all you need.
Sabrina Davis 