10 years on and pain never ends for family of MH370 passengers
I wish I had known Cathy and Bob Lawton. They seemed like wonderful people. Honest, hard working, downto-earth Queenslanders.
If their family is anything to go by I feel like I do. I’ve met Cathy’s sister, Jeanette Maguire, a few times now – and interviewed her twice – during my investigation of the MH370 disaster.
It’s not easy to talk about dark experiences, but she’s been open both times.
It’s helped me understand the horror of losing a loved one so suddenly, and without any kind of explanation.
As difficult as this might be, let’s step into her shoes.
Imagine, for a moment, a beloved family member dies in a plane crash. No goodbyes, no last wish – just gone.
Now imagine not one, but two beloved family members died in that plane crash. A worst kind of pain, right?
Now imagine, you don’t know where they are. You haven’t known for 10 years. Think one day of uncertainty is bad enough, try more than 3650 days – and counting. Still no answers. A gaping void that hasn’t been filled.
This has been Jeanette’s life ever since her sister Cathy and brother-inlaw Bob stepped on to Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 and never came home. But it’s not just Jeanette’s story. It’s Cathy’s other sister Eileen. It’s Cathy and Bob’s daughters Amanda, Melissa, and Glenda. It’s grief many, many times over and it hits hardest on the 8th of March every year – the day MH370 vanished.
“It’s been a long 10 years, and in some ways, it feels just like yesterday (since the plane disappeared),” Jeanette said. “Every year is hard, but for me, 10 years is the realisation how long this has taken to not have any answers,” she added.
It’s that similar feeling of love and loss that Cathy’s daughters shared with me as well in the exclusive documentary MH370: Ten Years On, which airs on Tuesday night.
This is just one family.
239 lives were lost in this tragedy, so the story you just read, is 239 times over.
MH370 Ten Years On airs tomorrow at 7.30pm AEDT on Sky News Australia, Stream at SkyNews.com.au or download the Sky News Australia app