Community togetherness

It's heartening to see how communities help one another.

A number of properties near us were affected by the fire. They had paddocks burnt and fences destroyed. By last Wednesday, a group of 80 volunteers amassed to help refence paddocks, especially those abutting the highway. They used large machinery donated by a local company (whose employee was burnt whilst helping neighbours) and by now, 10 days after the fire, there are new fences along these paddocks and one paddock is full of haybales donated by surrounding farmers.

At the hospital I work at, a woman gave birth on that terrible Saturday. She's from the north east of Melbourne and she and her partner lost everything - house, possessions, fencing and most of their stock. They only had the clothes they were in, and her maternity bag. By the Monday morning, there was a stream of Red Cross volunteers visiting her, bringing donations of clothing and accessories for her and the baby. Her partner spent his time driving between our hospital and another hospital 2hrs away, where his father was after suffering a heart attack. And he was also busy organising accommodation for his family, someone to feed his remaining stock - not once did he break down or was anything other than positive. He was very matter of fact and capable, and always had compliments for the nurses looking after his partner. It's wonderful to see such positivity after all the horror stories that are displayed on the news night after night. And the baby's name - Mackenzie Hope.