The York (as we locals call it) is scenic and rich in
natural beauty. I love the vast expanse of the outdoors and in my spare time I
am always on the jetty fishing. I feel wonderfully overwhelmed by the beauty of
nature whilst sitting on the jetty under the stars. I have always been a free
spirit and love the outdoors. But my life hasn't always gone to plan.
2 years ago, the love of my life, my wife, Lauren, out of
the blue told me that she had been seeing some guy and this had been going on
for 6 months. You can imagine how I felt when she told me. I was angry,
betrayed, and furious! I thought we were happily married and with a beautiful
daughter that I thought we both adored. It makes me angry just thinking about
it! She left me and our daughter. She was only thinking of herself and did not
care about the people she was hurting. My life was flipped around, I had nowhere
to go, nowhere to hide. But I knew that I had to stand up and be a father to my
daughter. She means the world to me. I had to re-evaluate my goals and knew
that all I wanted to do was make her proud and give her all the love and
support she deserved. One of the hardest moments of my life was telling her mummy
had left and wouldn't be coming back. Abby was only 8 at the time and even to
this day she finds it hard to understand.
But life has to go on and every day I make sure I am
there for Abby. I pick her up from school, take her to the park and every Saturday
we wake up early and Abby comes to with me to work. It is our weekly ritual -
we think of it as a Father/Daughter road trip. We drive to jetties that need maintenance.
I work, while Abby plays by the beach. Sometimes she get bored playing on the
sand so she helps me replace the rotten jetty logs. Her job is to bring me all
the bolts needed to fix the log in place, after I drill and counter sink the
holes. And of course Abby always quality controls my work to make sure it is up
to her high standards, to which she always replies "hmm it looks tip top,
daddy". For some reason it always makes me laugh. Even from a young age Abby
loved the outdoors, until one dreadful Saturday that I shall never forget.
I was just placing a log in place and Abby came running
to me with the bolts in her hands and suddenly a strong gust of wind swept her
off her balance and she clipped the timber edging and fell into the ocean. It
all happened in an instant. The strong current took her underneath the jetty
where she scraped her head on a cluster of barnacles wrapped around the jetty
post. I heard Abby's cry for help and instantly dropped the heavy hardwood log
and immediately ran down the jetty. Then I stopped and I saw the bolts
scattered on the jetty and instinctively jumped in the ocean. I looked
everywhere, I still couldn't see her. I yelled "Abby, Aaabby". I was
desperate, I dove under water and swam under and around the jetty posts looking
frantically in every direction. The salt water was stinging my eyes but it was
the last thing on my mind. I was propelling myself from post to post, leap-frogging,
fighting with the currents. Then a little flicker of light caught my eye. There
was Abby, her necklace reflecting the sun light. She was hovering at the bottom
of the seabed. I swam down to her as fast as I could and reached out to cradle
Abby in my arms. After floating down to the sea bed I kicked off the as hard as
I could, thrusting towards the ocean's surface. I noticed Abby wasn't moving
and had a large cut on her head, blood was seeping. We reach the surface,
Abby's head flicked back and her eyes suddenly opened and she started coughing
frantically . She slowly came to her senses, looked at me and smiled awkwardly
and began to giggle. Relief flooded me and I the shock of what had just
happened began to sink in. I said a
small prayer of thanks that my beautiful daughter was ok.
The day that Abby fell off the jetty and nearly drowned
was a turning point in my life. At the
time I was devastated - I felt responsible - first she loses her mother and now
she nearly loses her life. Now I
dedicated my life to raising my daughter and to ensuring that my Jetties are
the safest.
No comments:
Post a Comment