How would we react if we were in a desperate situation?
Would we cave in, or would we keep a level head and manage to get ourselves out of danger?
What if there was nothing we could do?
What if we were desperate to survive, but nothing we did with a level head worked?
What if the people we asked for help turned us away?
What if the survivors were placed in a desperate situation for having survived?
I ask these questions, of myself and found myself crying as I read a news article. News items that bring me to tears are usually those that inform me of things like children and animals being abused. This article strikes me as different from the ones that would normally bring me to tears, but as a mother, it also horrified me.
We all know about the devastation that the Australian floods caused, and the heroic boy called Jordan Rice, who pushed his little brother to the front to be rescued, while he and his mother were swept away to their deaths. What we weren’t aware of was what the family went through, and what they are still going through.
Donna Rice called emergency services and was ignored. Yes the service was overloaded, but she was ignored, and she was shouted at by call staff while she tried to do her best to save her family.
How frustrated would we all be in the same situation, how desperate?
What if we were facing death and the emergency services ignored us, shouted at us, and left us to die?
John Tyson, Donna Rice’s husband, and her son – 10 year old Blake Rice have to live with the aftermath of the tragedy. The publicity machine wound its wheels around the heroic actions of Jordan Rice, and pushed a young child dealing with the trauma into the spotlight.
What if the survivors got no support?
The little boy struggling to understand his new world without his mother and brother.
What if he had been given sympathy?
What if he had been given compassion?
Thrust into the spotlight, and given a broken collar-bone from thugs who resented the publicity he was given. Assaulted by up to 6 youths with sticks. Having to leave his home to escape the torment. Losing his home, his memories, his trust.
It made me cry. What about you?
Click here for the whole story.
Suzanne Edge says
April 20, 2011 at 8:26 pmWas telling my husband about this story the other day – it’s just unbelievable.
Scottish Mum says
April 20, 2011 at 11:10 pmIt’s so incredibly hard to believe how they were treated.
Marylin says
April 20, 2011 at 11:29 amThe whole thing just makes me feel sick to my stomach. 🙁
Scottish Mum says
April 20, 2011 at 11:12 pmAnd me. How awful must that time have been for the mother and son in the car with the response form the emergency services.
Steph says
April 20, 2011 at 8:28 amThat makes me cry too. Hadn’t seen it in the news. That is SO desperately unfair, and those words don’t even come close to explaining it. How can there be such evil people in the world?
I don’t know what I’d do to survive, but I think I would find some extra strength from somewhere to save my kids if it was at all possible. Let’s hope the situation never occurs 🙁