‘You bloody near did it girl’
A pregnant farmer valiantly used a gumboot to try to smash her way out of a submerged tractor in a desperate bid to save herself and her 3-year-old son.
‘‘You bloody near did it girl,’’ her heartbroken husband said at a funeral for the mother and child yesterday.
Nadine Tomlinson, 33, and their son, Angus, died when their tractor crashed into a private dam on the family’s farm in Waihemo, near Dunback in North Otago last Saturday afternoon.
Scott Tomlinson told almost 500 mourners his eldest son decided to go with his mum on the tractor rather than watch rugby with his dad.
Nadine Tomlinson lost control while driving the tractor, which became submerged in the irrigation dam.
Scott Tomlinson paid tribute wife’s ‘‘amazing effort’’ to survive.
‘‘It would be all or none in your mind. Your strength and dedication was on show all the time, but exemplified right to the to his very end, with your fighting spirit and absolute dedication to your kids.’’
His wife was a safety-conscious farmer, meticulous in her planning, and the farm was her and Angus’s ‘‘happy place’’.
He had a simple message for anyone touched by their tragedy: ‘‘Hug your kids every day, tell them you love them, tell your husband or wife the same thing ... because you don’t know when that’s your last day with them.’’
Every night he would kiss Nadine, known to many as ‘‘Nads’’, goodnight and tell her he loved her.
He promised to raise their 18-month-old son, Sam, knowing ‘‘what an amazing mother and brother he had’’.
‘‘Our life was about to get better with a third boy due in March. Your dedication to your boys was a bloody credit to them.’’
Mourners at the funeral included a playcentre group who paid tribute to Angus by singing Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star, and the proud grandparents who spoke of a beautiful little farm boy interested in the world around him.
On the night of the accident, Scott Tomlinson, who had taken Sam to search for the other two members of their family, noticed skid marks leading to an irrigation dam.
‘‘I couldn’t see the tractor, I could just see skid marks going into the dam and I knew where she was.’’
Tomlinson could only wait for emergency services to arrive. Nearly 24 hours later, police divers recovered their bodies.
The couple, who both grew up on farms, were married for 41⁄2 years and worked together on the 400-hectare property.