GRIEVING DAUGHTER’S COURAGE
HOW THEME PARK SURVIVOR EBONY TURNER HAS BECOME HER DEVASTATED FAMILY’S PILLAR OF STRENGTH
A YEAR ago Ebony Turner was a heartbroken child blaming herself for the death of her mother and uncles.
Today she is a strong and mature teenager playing a pivotal role in helping her father and baby sister rebuild their lives from the ashes of the Dreamworld tragedy.
“She’s quite a strong little girl,” family friend Sandra Brookfield said of 13-year-old Ebony who cheated death on the fatal Thunder River Rapids ride that killed her mother Kate Goodchild, uncle Luke Dorsett and Luke’s partner Roozi Araghi, as well as Kiwi mother-of-two Cindy Low.
“She comes across as much older in years than she is and is very, very protective of her father. Maybe she’s trying to fill the void (left by her mother).
“That’s a big responsibility for a little girl but she’s doing well in her schooling. She’s not having any behavioural issues.
“She’s doing as well as can be expected and going along like any 13-year-old does.”
On the eve of tomorrow’s first anniversary of a tragedy that shocked the nation, Ms Brookfield has provided an intimate insight into the ongoing heartache endured by the loved ones of Ms Goodchild and Mr Dorsett since the raft they were in flipped that day.
They include Ebony, who miraculously survived only to later blame herself for insisting the family go on the ride, and her father David Turner, who saw the nightmare unfold from a nearby platform as he cared for the couple’s eight-monthold daughter Evie.
Then there is Kim Dorsett, Ms Goodchild and Mr Dorsett’s devastated mother.
“Her grief is overwhelming,” Ms Brookfield said of her childhood friend.
“Kim actually feels like she lost three children because Roozi (Luke’s partner) was like her third child. He was just always there.
“Kim and Kate had a wonderful mother-daughter relationship and spent a lot of time with Ebony. The three of them were always together. They shopped together, chose school clothes together,
watched Ebony play netball together, and now all that’s gone.
“She’s still not working normal hours. As a teacher she’s not capable of holding down a full-time job. She’s extremely traumatised by it all.
“I know it’s been a year but it feels like yesterday for Kim.”
Compounding the family’s heartache, Ms Brookfield said little Evie had recently been hospitalised with a serious illness.
“She’s recovering now but she has suffered enormously in the last few weeks,” she said of the now 20-month-old.
“I don’t want to go into it too much … but she has been in hospital and (Kim) did say to me ‘Life is just so precious’ and knows so well how things can turn just so fast.”
While Dreamworld will hold a private staff service tomorrow for team members to pay their respects to those lost, Ms Brookfield said her friend would likely spend the day at her children’s gravesites.
“Dave sometimes meets her there and they put fresh flowers out and care for them together,” she said.
“Her mother is in the same cemetery and she has her own plot now next to the children. It’s all taken care of.
“This week is going to be traumatic for them ... it has been on the news of late and seeing the ride is hard for Kim and Dave, along with seeing them lying under the covers.
“That is the worst thing because she is seeing her children under those sheets.”