OLIVIA’S LEGACY
The horror that has a family unable to sleep
EVERY night Gold Coast mother Tegan Mitchell has nightmares.
Dreams of car accidents and death have haunted her sleep for the past two months, ever since her daughter Olivia Douglas, 8, was killed on the Bruce Highway, near Childers, while driving to a Bundaberg netball carnival.
Tegan is not alone. Her partner Tim Stark and her sisters Liz Mitchell and Taren Turner also wake in the night, unable to get back to sleep.
But even while awake, the friendly close-knit family from Ormeau Hills have struggled to escape their grief.
Tegan works at Oxenford State School, where Olivia attended with her older brother Noah, 11. Since the crash, Noah has only completed one full week at school.
Neither Tegan nor Tim have been able to return to work, although they would like to next year to help keep Olivia’s memory alive.
“We used to say ‘I love you’ every night.
“We used to say it religiously, now I look back and she doesn’t say it back anymore, so it’s just so hard,” Tegan said through tears.
“Every day you wake up and hope that it was just a bad dream and it’s not. Now it’s the realisation that she’s never coming back. And the realisation before she left that we were very happy.
“You know happiness until something like this happens and now we know we’ll never know happiness again because she’s never going to be here.”
Tegan’s sister Liz said life’s responsibilities meant she had to go back to work, despite the intense anguish she felt every day.
It was in her office where Liz learned of Olivia’s death. Her sister Taren called at 1.45pm on Friday, September 14, to inform her.
Liz collapsed in a ball of emotion.
She has since tried rearranging her office so that her surroundings are not a constant reminder of that day, but it has not worked.
Most Fridays, when the clock strikes 1.45pm, she is pulled back in time to that phone call.
Like the rest of his relatives, Olivia’s stepfather Tim has tried to keep a positive outlook during the most difficult time of his life.
He holds his head high as he speaks about the little girl who only months earlier had big dreams of becoming a fashion designer who lived in a mansion with a dance studio.
Tim said his outlook on driving had completely changed.
“While driving now I see more crosses. I never noticed that many crosses on the highways, on the roads, prior,” he said.
“But I think it’s probably because I’m more cautious and alert now everywhere I drive.”
The whole family feels anger when they see someone acting recklessly on the road. Taren knows that it was likely one unnecessary risk led to her daughter’s best friend and cousin being taken from her just months before Christmas.
She hopes that anyone reading the Gold Coast Bulletin’s road safety campaign this week will think about their family before they take unnecessary risks this festive season.
“It’s that time of the year where you feel like you don’t want to let people down. But you have to let some stuff go and think about what’s really important,” she said.
“Look at their little faces and ask yourself ‘is what I’m about to do even worth it?’ ”