‘Our world’s been tipped upside down’
“It’s her (Willow’s) smiling and giggling that is getting me through all of this. Mel, on the other hand, she’s still in the fight of her life.” ALEX PLUCKE
NINE-MONTH-OLD Willow spent her first Christmas at her mother’s hospital bedside.
Rescued from her back seat capsule as her mum Melanie Rankin lay unconscious in the front of their crumpled car after a horror crash last month, she has little idea of the trauma that’s surrounding her world.
Ms Rankin’s fiancé Alex Plucke says their lives have been changed forever.
“She’s happy and safe and didn’t have a scratch on her. Since the accident she’s grown five teeth and even started to crawl,” he says.
“It’s her smiling and giggling that is getting me through all of this. Mel on the other hand, she’s still in the fight of her life.”
Ms Rankin was travelling along Lower Duneed Rd at Armstrong Creek on November 2 when her sedan collided with another car, before veering into roadside trees.
Cut from the crumpled red car and flown to the Royal Melbourne Hospital in a critical condition, she spent six weeks in intensive care before being moved to the trauma ward where she is likely to be for some time yet.
“She had a broken neck and broken pelvis and a very serious head injury,” Mr Plucke says.
“She’s opening her eyes but can’t communicate with us yet, it’s a slow process.”
The devastated fiancé said he’d since left his job and moved to Melbourne to be by his partner’s side while his parents had also resigned from their jobs to take care of Willow.
Ms Rankin’s parents are forced to make the regular journey between Meredith and Melbourne to be by their daughter’s side.
The couple were due to be married this coming October.
“I don’t know how I’ve got this far without the community’s support.
“I was in the car coming home from working in Melbourne when I got the call, I was on the West Gate Bridge and just turned around and drove to the Royal Melbourne,” Mr Plucke says.
“I’m tormented by those things, watching the helicopter land and knowing Mel was in there.
“I’ll forever be grateful though to the fellow who got Willow out of the car and cuddled her until others arrived. And those who stopped to save Mel’s life.
“I don’t know how this will all turn out — the not knowing is the hardest.
“We all hear the message that when you drive away your life could change forever, but for us that's our reality.
“Our whole world has been tipped upside down.”