Buchan - Step by step: finding my way back to me

For Kim

First published in 2016 by The Author People

PO Box 159, St Ives, NSW, 2075 Australia

Copyright Linda Buchan 2016

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of The Author People.

National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry

Printed by Lightning Source

Authors Note

This is my story and it is written from my own perspective on the events identified. Some names and places have been changed to protect privacy.

Linda is the embodiment of her mantra its not what happens to you. Its how you deal with it. She is an inspiration to us all. - Janine Shepherd AM

Contents

Prologue

Fire

My name is Linda Buchan. I was eighteen when I died.

It was a winters day, Saturday, 27 June 1998. The day my young life ended and my new life began; a life that was to be so completely different to the one I had envisaged.

My sister, Kim, and I were both trapped in a catastrophic house fire in Sydneys Neutral Bay. When I was pulled from the building, paramedics worked frantically for ten minutes to revive me, but Kim, who was trapped in the house for longer than me, couldnt be resuscitated.

That weekend was meant to be special. It was my best friend, Jules, eighteenth birthday and shed organised a party. Kim, who was a boarder at my old school, had arranged to stay with me on the Friday night so that she could play in an important netball game the next morning, after which she planned on catching the train home to Wagga Wagga (in rural New South Wales).

I couldnt wait for Friday to pass, for the weekend to start. I was spending my gap year as a receptionist in an insurance brokers office and I remember how quickly I locked up the office at the end of the day and eagerly drove to Ravenswood School for Girls to collect Kim. It was the end of the school term and I knew how much she would be looking forward to it.

It was raining when I pulled up to the school gates and as I ran to Kims dormitory she came bouncing down the corridor, squealing with excitement, to give me a big hug.

She couldnt wait to see my place and was keen to know if my flatmates, Naomi and Andrew, would be home. When we arrived home they were relaxing after work, their overnight bags packed ready for their weekend away. They greeted Kim with hugs and smiles, as if she was an old friend.

You can have my room, Naomi offered.

Giving Kim the grand tour upstairs we bumped into my other flatmate, Josh, who had only moved in a couple of months before.

You remember my little sister, Kim? I asked him.

Of course, who could forget? he replied, flatteringly.

Josh suggested getting sushi together, but then his phone rang with a different offer.

Okay mate, I heard him say, Ill see if she wants to come, see you there.

He turned to me and asked if I wanted to meet up with friends for a drink at a bar on Oxford Street, a popular in-place in Sydney.

At first, I said no, I just wanted to hang out with Kim but she loved to party and have fun as much as I did and urged me to go. She insisted that shed be fine.

The night went off as usual, fun and noisy. I loved to socialise and party and really enjoyed meeting new people from different walks of life. However, I also had a netball game to play the next morning, so I decided to leave reasonably early. I quietly slipped out of the bar and found a cab to take me home.

Once I had paid the cab driver, I remembered that Kim had my house key. I didnt want to wake her ahead of her important game so I decided to find another way into the house.

The first-floor balcony door was always left open and I knew that was my way in. Even though I was an able-bodied, fit young woman, I gingerly climbed the two-metre brushwood fence. Once I was over, I took off the black trousers I had borrowed from Naomi, as I didnt want to ruin them. After neatly folding them I left them nearby to collect the next morning. Then, it was back on top of the fence, onto the balcony and into Andrews room.

Once in my room across the hall, I changed into my PJs, turned the heater on to take the chill out of the air and hopped into bed.

Back at the bar, Josh noticed that I was missing. Deciding that hed been at the bar long enough, he jumped in a cab with his mate Jason and went back to Neutral Bay. He said, after the accident, that hed wanted to make sure I was okay.

As their cab turned into our street, Jason was the first to notice the fire.

Mate, isnt that where you live? he asked.

Josh said he saw brilliant bright red and orange flames licking the outside walls of the house and thick black smoke billowing from the upstairs windows.

Holy shit, thats my place, Josh remembers yelling and as the cab screeched to a halt. It was as if he went into overdrive.

I didnt have time to think, he said later. He told me how he kicked the front door down to get in and was met with a wall of thick, choking smoke. As he entered the house he immediately felt the intense heat of the fire.

Josh said he didnt give a second thought to his own safety, nor was he trying to be a hero. For him, his actions were powered by instinct.

Not knowing what he would find, and oblivious to the angry flames that had enveloped the floor above the entrance hall, he bounded up the stairs two at a time to where the dense black smoke was already leaving its ugly marks on the white walls. On the first floor the flames were glowing with a frightening strength and intensity.

Josh somehow found his way to my room and remembers calling out my name while choking on the heavy smoke as it invaded his lungs. Desperately he moved along the corridor and saw the flames and embers of what he later learned was burning material. Blinded by smoke, he dropped to his knees, groped his way around and found my unconscious body.

Picking me up, he scrambled down the stairs as best he could to where Jason was waiting. He laid me down on the nature strip where they checked my vital signs. He knew that he had to try and rescue Kim too and so he rushed back through the front door.

Inside the house he stumbled into Naomis room but couldnt find Kim. Overcome by smoke, he staggered back downstairs, took another deep breath and then raced back into the house for a third time. He searched another room but couldnt penetrate the deadly smoke, and as he reeled, choking, back down the stairs, he was grabbed by a fireman who took him outside.