SUZANNE NAYLOR

I was out at Lincoln on the telephone with someone in the city when it happened. I heard the phone get cut off after some screaming and I thought that was a bit much, you know, a little bit hysterical–I didn’t realize. I had no idea of the extent… the way the earthquake had affected the city. A few hours later, I heard buildings had fallen and when I tried to ring my father I couldn’t get through. He only had a portable and he wasn’t answering. That made me jump in the car, but I only got so far before becoming stuck in traffic and having to ditch it. I had my youngest boy with me who wasn’t too good at walking and too heavy to carry.  I ended up pushing him on top of a recycling bin for several blocks. I expected to arrive at Cowlishaw Street and see the house collapsed with my father inside.

Some people have family farms and other people make do with a quarter acre section. This place is not just a house to us, this is my father’s home, our family home. I was conceived in that room just across the hall. I found out it was to be demolished while I was in the Halswell Supermarket. I looked down and saw someone I recognized being comforted, she was crying on the front page of the paper. When I realized what it was about, I began crying myself. I was really hoping my father could be classified green and that we could get another home for him on the same section, something comfortable after a year of living like he had.

A broken home is very hard on a man his age, yeah. I was very upset. I know that my father doesn’t express sorrow much at all, but I could tell he was not unaffected. And not just for the house, the garden has always been so important to us as well. It’s a beautiful section, almost a quarter of an acre and the trees are huge, yeah, they’re amazing. It’s been designed so there is always something happening throughout the seasons. Dad actually had a big pond in the back garden and every season there’d be a whole family of ducklings residing there.  People love different things and for dad and me it’s gardening. So when people say, ‘How old is he? Oh he’ll be alright, he’ll find a nice unit somewhere,’ and others talk of how he could buy himself into a nice retirement village, I’ve just had to understand their lack of knowledge about my dad. They are well-meaning I’m sure, but obviously they have no real appreciation of what might be important to him.