It’s getting hot here in Australia. Summer is just about here. For a long while after we lost Ava, I would brace hearing the evening news, never wanting to know of another family enduring what we have..of someone elses precious child losing their life the way Ava did. But that day came, another family lost their daughter, and then another. One mother, she lost both her children. Every time, it broke my heart all over again. Such a simple thing - family cars parked outside homes..a brief window where all of the planets made way for the perfect storm and then, just like that, nothing was ever the same.
How I wish just the simple act of distributing the Ava’s Rule postcard would mean this never happened again, anywhere, ever. In reality I know it’s probably not possible. We can try though, can’t we? Please email this post card to every single person you know. For us. For Ava. For families who adore their children, who think they’ve covered off all the risks, who may have never thought of the dangers of their car parked outside on a normal Sunny day. Please.
There are two other things I want to share with you too. Because of other grieving families I’ve met over the last three years, I am horribly aware of the many varied ways in which childrens lives are cut short. Some of them are completely obscure and some are tragically, much more common.
The risk of drowning to young children, particularly here in Australia where we spend much of the year swimming, is very real. If you have a pool, I ask you to strongly consider installing a pool safety net available, from here in Australia and here in the USA. If you think it’s not necessary, the devastated parents of those lost children would tell you it is. So many very good families lose their precious and adored babies in the blink of an eye, with pool fences in place.
I would also ask that you take a moment to read this post regarding new child restraint legislation here in Australia, effective March 2010. Because of the tireless work of our beautiful friends, Danielle & Noel Broadhead, Isabelle’s Regulations have been introduced. I am so proud and so sad at the same time. I know this victory is bittersweet for them – just as sharing Ava’s Rule is near impossible but imperative for me.
It’s been difficult to write this post. I’m not someone to tell others what they should be doing. But how I wish, with every ounce of my being, that someone had sent me a postcard like this one before we lost our Super Princess. If someone had shown Yasmine or Hannah’s Mum a pool net. If someone had mentioned to Danielle and Leanne the risks of booster seats and adult seat belts. If only.
S x
ps: to email, just right click save then attach to your email. If you want to blog this, I’d be ever so grateful. Thankyou so much.
