When_There's_Good_There's_Bad

When there’s good, there’s bad. Emma Whelan 11.6 Draft 5. Family “A basic social unit consisting of parents and their children, considered as a group, whether dwelling together or not: the traditional family. A social unit consisting of one or more adults together with the children they care for: a single-parent family”. (www.dictonary.com, 2011) Family is the most important part of your life. When you first come into the world, family is your soul. Family has a large part of your heart. There are unfortunate people in the world that have never been a part of a family or have drifted apart or separated from family. To a large amount of people in the world, family is extremely important. For most families, love is unconditional and everlasting. Losing a family member is devastating. You feel like something is missing, an empty dark void, that never can be filled. Lifesaver “A person who rescues another from danger of death, especially from drowning”. (www.dictonary.com, 2011) In Australia being a Surf Lifesaver is just like being a teacher, a cook, a farmer or a hair dresser. It’s a job. But it’s more than a job; it’s a vocation – paid or otherwise. A Surf Lifesaver patrols the beaches to protect and save the public. Lifesavers can be highly skilled and qualified, but all anyone needs to save a life are basic skills. Saving a life is like saving a family’s life. “It’s a lifesavers job to save people in trouble”. I was woken by the bright sunshine peering through my wooden blinds and the noise of the old air-conditioner. I walked into the kitchen. Sitting on the bench was a medium size blue esky, with a note sitting on top. Car keys were preventing the note from being blown away by the ceiling fan. The note said: “Dear Cooper and Lily, Dad and I have both been called into work. We have left you the car and packed you a little lunch. Have a nice day at the beach. Love Mum and Dad”. I ran into my brother’s room with excitement. “Cooper. Wake up, wake up, were going to the beach”. “Err, nah later sis it’s too early, let me sleep. We cruised down the long, dusty, red road, listening to mum and dad’s old music, knowing Little Bondi Beach was becoming closer and closer. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Cooper with his singlet and Raybans on, bopping to the music. Without looking at me, Cooper uttered under his breath, "I forgive you for dragging me out of bed. This is a great idea". We pulled the car up next to the old casuarina pine. As we jumped out of the car, I thought to myself, “I’m so privileged to live in such a beautiful place”. Lying next to my brother, on deck chairs, with no one around, listening to the waves roll in, one by one, seemed the best way to spend our day. Unfortunately, not half an hour had passed when the sound of a car’s engine roared over the sand hill, destroying the idyllic scene. “Ohhh” sighed Cooper, “company isn’t so bad I guess.” A family parked down the beach, all seeming very excited as through it was their first time at an Australian beach. While eating our lunch we both heard a very distressed high pitched voice coming from down the beach. Reacting at lightning speed we both dropped our lunch and ran down to a very distressed mother. The mother was pointing out to the rocks were her two young teenage boys were being pulled out by a rip. Both boys were thrashing at the water in panic. Cooper the stronger swimmer, swam out to rescue the drowning teenagers; while I calmed and reassured the parents on the beach. All they wanted to do was swim out to sea. It took all my powers of persuasion to not let this happen. My task seemed near impossible as they weren’t fluent in English. I turned around to see how Cooper was doing; he was standing on a rock, searching close to where the teenagers were last seen. I knew I had to do something to help. By the time I reached him, I found him frantic and crying. Cooper yelled “They were under before I got here, I can’t see them, and it’s been 10 minutes”. But Lifesavers are human, and therefore susceptible to the original danger and the emotional trauma of failure, despite our best efforts. Having to tell Cooper that we had done all we could and that the boys were still gone, was horrible. But not near as soul shattering as telling the parents that here was nothing more we could do and they'd just lost their children. You don’t realise how much family means to you until you lose them. In everything you do, there are always things that don’t work out, Lifesavers might be heroes, but they’re also normal people. They can’t save everyone’s life. And when they can’t, they have to live with the pain, grief, frustration and helplessness of their failure. A failure leaves a family with devastating loss. I’ll never forget that day. The months of being counselled by rescue services dulled the pain, but could do nothing to dull the memory that will still be with us.