Please help Anna rebuild her life after the flood

Fay Jackson is organizing this fundraiser.

Donation protected

Hello dear friends and compassionate people.

As many of you know we have been hit very hard by floods in the Northern Rivers.

My daughter Anna who lives at Wilsons Creek, near Mullumbimby, almost lost her life and did lose almost all of her belongings, her vehicle and business in the floods. The trauma began in the night. Anna was attempting to tie her van to a tree at 3am when the waters broke the banks of the river. However, it was a large wall of water that came across the land, rather than down the river, hit her from behind and almost took her life. She had a head torch on and a young man, Tor who is visiting from New Zealand, saw that she was down in the water and went to her. She was tangled in rope; Tor had a pocket knife in his pocket; he cut her free and tied her to him around their waists. As they were being swept with the torrent of water, they collected another young man, Jamie, and tied him to them. A caravan and tiny house crashed past them on one side and, corrugated iron, furniture, logs and trees were being thrown in the water all around them. The noise of the water and the destruction was overwhelming. Miraculously, they were swept onto the little mango tree below; Tor tied the three of them to it.

The flood water was rising rapidly and was gushing past them incredibly fast. The second part of the miracle; an axle and two wheels washed against them and the tree. This gave them an extra foot to stand higher in the water. While mighty trees were ripped out of the ground, that little mango tree stayed strong and held them safe. I cry every time I think of what they went through and how close we came to not having her in our lives, the miracles of Tor being there, a pocket knife in his pocket, that little tree holding them and that axle being supplied for them to stand on.

We are incredibly thankful and blessed that Anna, Tor and Jamie survived. Tragically a person further down the mountain didn’t.

after the water subsided enough to leave the tree and climb to safety, Anna could look back down and see that her life as she knew it had been swept away. Anna didn’t live in a house per se but her marquee and furniture had been destroyed and swept away, her tools that she works her vegetable patch with, works on her car and builds her massive baskets with were gone, as were her clothes; her patterns, cloth and dying pots that she uses to dye fabrics before making the clothes she designs and sells on line and at markets were gone as was her market gazebo and equipment.

Below, at a more peaceful time, the river where Anna lives and one of her amazing baskets that she makes. Her last basket was swept away when the river it burst it’s banks.

She also lost all of the internal components of her beloved Troop Carrier which she sleeps in and pulls her large car trailer, laden with the massive baskets she makes in the Daintree each year.

On the Tuesday before the flood she had pulled everything out of her Troopy to fish oil it to protect it from rust, and seats, linings, mats, handles, everything was taken by the water.

The photo below is Annas friends tiny house that sped past them as they clung to the little mango tree.

Below is the mango tree and the axel that held them in the torrent. The banana trees that were behind the mango tree seemed to break the waters force enough to keep the mango tree in place.

More photos of the ‘space’ Anna rents and where her vegetables once grew.

This is Tor who went to Annas aid, with a car door washed onto her space.

We are so blessed that Anna, Tor and Jamie survived but she has lost her livelihood, her life as she knew it, her vegetables, the internals of her car and almost everything else. If you feel you could help her financially, we would be so appreciative. She needs funds to get her car back on the road so she can start to build her business again. She needs funds to purchase cloth, dye and super large pots to die fabric to make clothes for her business. She needs a little bit of furniture to make her life more comfortable and she needs a marquee to live in and one to take to markets and she needs to heal.

Like most artisans in Australia, she lives a very frugal existence, she didn’t have much but what she had was important to her life, her income and her wellbeing.