MH17 Lives shattered and rebuilding after loss
Four years after losing all three of her children in a plane crash, Rin Norris draws strength from their memory
With their dancing eyes and cheeky grins, it’s still so hard to believe Mo, Evie and Otis Maslin, who tragically became the faces of the MH17 disaster, are gone.
All three would be in high school by now but instead, their lives, along with their grandfather’s, were cut short
at just 12, 10 and eight respectively, after a Russian missile destroyed the civilian plane they were on as it flew over eastern Ukraine.
The Malaysia Airlines jet fell from the skies killing 298 people – including 38 Australians – on a flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur.
No person or country has been charged for the July 17, 2014 atrocity, however international investigators have concluded that the attack was orchestrated by pro-russian rebels.
For four years, mum Rin Norris has chosen not to speak about the cataclysmic event that shattered her and partner Anthony’s life.
But on the anniversary of the disaster, spurred on by the fact US President Donald Trump refused to hold Russian President Vladimir Putin to account over the tragedy, the Perth mum has broken her silence.
LIVES SHATTERED
“As a couple of bullies try to out bully each other… I write… I’ll write of the visible and the invisible – the bruise coloured flower of motherlove – I’ll write of being broken and putting the pieces of myself back together again – and resilience – and strength,” Rin wrote on Facebook.
“Once on an everyday sort of day, in a land far, far away, anger and power had overtaken the hearts of men. They had a missile and they ended the lives of 300. Shattering and wrenching apart my life, my family and my soul.”
The children, chaperoned by their grandfather Nick Norris, 68, were on their way home to start school after a European holiday. Rin and Anthony chose to remain a few extra days.
Eldest boy Mo, who loved surfing and football, was a student at Scotch College, while his younger brother and sister went to Deanmore Primary School in Perth. All three had also lived in Hong Kong.
“They were taken in the night time – in the harsh fluorescent light of the night time,” shares Rin, clearly pained by the fact her children were “condemned to darkness”.
“Sometimes experiences from the past pop into my head and I can’t move, rendered immobile by loss and horror, staring at nothing and inside, trauma is being re-lived. The trauma of a loss so cataclysmic that it singled us out of all Australians, and made us different.
“I miss them, I miss them, I miss them. [It] underlies everything.”
ENDURING LOVE
The heartbroken mum says the love of her children – a love strong enough to move mountains – gives her the strength to continue.
“The kids hold me up with their golden ropes,” she writes. “They help me when I feel I can’t go on. When I close my eyes, I can see their smiles. ”
Now, driven by the enduring love she has for family, Rin hopes that by speaking out she can inspire humanity in others, or make them feel less alone.
“So how can I remain silent?” she asks.
‘The kids help me when I feel I can’t go on’