A cross for each life
On the outside Waverley appears much the same as it always has – except when an emergency siren goes off.
‘‘Every time you hear that siren go you think ‘oh my god, it’s probably an accident’,’’ resident Laraine Sole said.
Today marks exactly a month since the tragic crash on State Highway 3 that killed seven people and the small South Taranaki town is still dealing with the aftermath.
‘‘If you just passed through, had a cup of coffee here, you probably wouldn’t think anything,’’ said Sole, a teacher-turnedwriter. ‘‘Superficially it doesn’t seem any different when you’re just out and about – it’s just like life goes on.
‘‘But as soon as you start to gather in groups of people then everyone talks about it.
‘‘It’s a healthy thing, really.’’ Today, seven crosses line the side of the road near the scene. Two are painted pink. They mark the lives of the seven victims – including two children – who died in New Zealand’s worst crash in more than a decade.
Four of the crosses represent Waverley residents Ian Porteous, 80, Rosalie Porteous, 76, Ian’s sister Ora Keene, 84, and Brenda Williams, 79, who died at the scene. The other three are for Stratford family Jeremy Thompson, his eight-week-old daughter Shady-Jade, and his stepdaughter Nivek Madams, 8, who died hours afterwards.
The girls’ mother, Ani Nohinohi, was the sole survivor.
It is not known who put the crosses up, but Sole, who knew the four Waverley residents and truck driver Anthony Stubbs, who died in a crash days before, said they will be a constant reminder.
‘‘It’ll forever be their corner now.’’
Sole thinks despite the tragedy, the town is making a real effort to remember the victims.
‘‘What I’ve been really impressed about in Waverley is everyone’s determined to keep these people alive,’’ she said. ‘‘It’s quite hard when you go to functions where you’re used to seeing people and they’re not there.
‘‘People will go ‘remember this? Remember that?’ So it’s lovely that we are keeping them alive rather than bottling it up.’’
Despite Waverley’s tough exterior, it’s impossible to escape reminders of the crash.
‘‘No matter where you go, what you do, people go ‘oh my god, you had those terrible accidents in Waverley’,’’ Sole said.
‘‘We only just farewelled Tony on the 17th. He was the last person to have a service,’’ Sole said of the truck driver. ‘‘I guess in a way that’s the last of the public demonstrations of grief.
‘‘I think now we’ve had goodbyes, we will start to move on.’’