Tears unite a grieving community
Hundreds share sorrow at memorial services for firefighter and family
FOR close to a minute yesterday, deafening cheers and applause filled the Plettenberg Bay Community Church as firefighters – mourning the loss of one of their own – were celebrated by the community.
In a moving memorial ceremony that honoured the life of young firefighter Bradley Richards, hundreds of people crammed into the hall, with those who could not fit inside standing outside.
Richards, 24, died from the injuries he sustained while fighting the fires in Knysna last week.
He and his volunteer supervisor, Ian Barnard, 38, had become surrounded and trapped by the flames.
With President Jacob Zuma also attending, the church was lined with rows of firefighters, some seen wiping away tears.
Richards was described in glowing terms with friends and family saying he was funny, trustworthy, loyal and lovable.
When pastor Johan Coetzee asked the firefighters to stand, the hall rang out with cheers.
Raw emotion was evident as message after message was read out.
Richards’ older sister, Tammy Amarol’s, message had many in tears.
The poignant message and a poem written by Richards’ cousins brought home the devastating loss.
“Bradley my life, my brother, my blood. I didn’t know where to start writing this so I eventually decided to start from the beginning,” Amarol, 30, said in the letter read out by their stepfather, Norman Doyle.
“I remember back when it was just me and I got all the attention.
“I remember mom and dad trying to choose a name [for you] and I also remember them bringing you home.
“I remember how you drove me crazy pulling that little red chair around the house so you could reach things.
“[In] one particular moment, I was in trouble and I was in my room crying, and you pushed that little red chair, opened my door and you came in to console me. Even as a toddler your heart was golden.
“As we grew up, I realised how much I needed you and how much you were crucial in my life.”
When Richards’ niece, aged about eight, took to the stage, the hall fell silent as the little girl stood with her father while he read her message.
“Dear Brad, you were the funniest guy I have ever known,” she wrote.
“Whenever I told you about other kids who were mean to me, you would also find ways to cheer me up. “You were the one who taught me how to plant a tree and you were the one who taught me how to ride a quad bike and later bought my first quad bike.”
Richards’ neighbour, Ingrid Lorman, 70, praised him for being handy on the farm they lived on and said he was always willing to help.
“His favourite words were ‘no worries’. We lived on the same farm and whenever something breaks, I call Brad.
“The other day, on that fateful, tragic day, he was on top of my roof fixing it. Brad was so special,” Lorman said.
Barnard, who sustained severe burns with Richards when flames engulfed them, was also at the memorial service.
He said he would be returning to the Plettenberg Bay Medi-Clinic straight after the service.
Zuma, who had earlier visited some of the worst affected areas, also sent a message of support to
the family at the funeral.
“This disaster has left all of us shocked ... the country. [It] has received attention from across the world,” he said.
“We learnt that this fire took away lives and on behalf of government and the entire nation we send our condolences and sympathy to the family.”
After the service, a number of firefighters formed a guard of honour before returning to fight fires.
Steven Myburgh, who also spoke at the service, said they would immediately return to work as the winds were high and there were concerns that the fires would flare up again.
During the service, Myburgh said: “I don’t know how we will cope. We will get to that after we have dealt with the disaster.”
Meanwhile, in Humansdorp nearly 500 people filled the town’s Dutch Reformed Church for a memorial service for Madre Johnston, 33, who was eight months’ pregnant, husband Tony, 34, and son Michael.
They all died in the raging forest fires while fleeing for safety from their Sedgefield smallholding last week.
Compounding the tragedy was that they died on Michael’s third birthday.
Tony’s cousin, Lunice Johnston, said a private cremation service was planned in George. “This is the same church where Tony and Madre were married and it is where little Michael’s christening was held so the family really have a longstanding relationship with the church,” she said.
“It was a beautiful service and you could tell from the number of people there just how many lives they had touched.”
Johnston said among those attending were friends and family from along the Garden Route and members of the mountaineering club that Tony and Madre had joined.
“This has been really tragic and has devastated the family but the messages from everyone, from near and from abroad, have made the family stronger. We have been clinging to the happy memories and looking at old photographs,” she said.