On Tour with The Kid | So This is Christmas

CHLOE O'SULLIVAN

It's the time we look back over the year, and well, this one has been eventful, to say the least.

After a surgical mishap, I needed to put my Grandma into care 7 hours away from where we live. She is my only extended family, so that was a really difficult decision. It's been a tough transition for so many reasons. Not the least of which is that when deciding where would be the best place, she was very insistent that she wanted to go "home" to the country where she grew up.

This seemed like a good plan at the time, as we still have people out there. It has, however, landed her in the centre of the worst floods in decades, which meant delays in our being able to get to her when there is a problem. It also meant her having to watch on the news as her beloved hometown of Eugowra, 20 mins from where she is, was flooding.

My cousin's house was washed off its piers and broken in half. When the water finally did subside, their furniture, clothes and treasured family memories were all over the lawn. A friend has spent years heading the program that has seen Eugowra covered in murals. She could do nothing but watch as the town she had worked so hard to make beautiful became something that resembled a war zone.

My childhood memories are so tied to that town. There is one house across from the town's pool, which almost every family member has lived in at some point. The pub feels like home, and walking up the ramp to the supermarket that was previously an old movie theatre always makes me smile. Less than a month ago, four generations of our little family were sitting in the sun at the Fat Parcel, our favourite local cafe.

Then on Monday, 14 November, the town was woken at 5.56am to an evacuation order.

Usually, the creek rises slowly, and the main street will see water creep up over time, but this day, less than half an hour after the evacuation order, there was a wall of water up to two metres high, hitting the town with nowhere for residents to go. People were stuck on the rooves of their homes for 7-plus hours with nothing to do but wait for help.

I know there is lots of talk about natural disasters, but the management of dams and insurance companies abandoning whole communities has nothing to do with the elements and more to do with human nature. You can only hope that this Christmas, kindness wins out over ego and greed and the people in these tiny towns get what they need, whether it's a safe political seat or not.

On top of that, this year, there have been friends dealing with the loss of friends and family members, dealing with terminal illness, separation, and divorce. There have been so many heartbreaking situations surrounding us this year that it feels like it will never end.

Of course, I could choose to be enveloped by the darkness, but this Christmas, for the kid, I'm choosing to see things differently. We know so many people who have heartbreaking things going on because we have so many amazing people in our lives. People who we love and who love us back. So it hurts when they are struggling and in pain. But how lucky are we to have all those people around us?

Ultimately, all that matters is how we care about people and the feeling we leave with those people when we are gone. So make this Christmas more about being fully present than the presents and looking after the people who show up for you (and the occasional stranger, too). What else is there?

Central Hotel Eugowra