Mum still grieves for lost daughter
Marilyn O’Donnell received the news every parent dreads.
Marilyn’s eldest daughter, DeAnne Reid had been killed when a wooden viewing platform, built by the Department of Conservation at Cave Creek, collapsed and plunged more than 30 metres to the river bed below.
De-Anne, a Tai Poutini Polytechnic outdoors recreation student, was one of 13 on the platform who died in the tragedy.
Every year since De-Anne’s death, Marilyn has made the road trip to the Cave Creek site, 50km north of Greymouth, to lay flowers and remember her 18-year-old daughter.
It will not be any different this year, she said.
She will be joined by her daughter Jolene, and friends of De-Anne, as well as families of the other 12 victims at the anniversary service beside the Cave Creek memorial at the Greymouth polytechnic at 11.30, close to the time the platform collapsed on April 28, 1995.
‘‘I like to go back every year, not always on the same day, but I regularly visit the Cave Creek site,’’ she said.
De-Anne is buried at Fairhall Cemetery but Cave Creek held more significance as it was the last place she was alive, she said.
The emotions she felt had not diminished with the years.
‘‘Even though the actual site is buried by a rockfall and the bush has become overgrown, it is still a beautiful scenic area.’’
An inquiry found the platform’s construction was at odds with the design plans.
‘‘I always think how could DOC have been so blase about the construction,’’ she said.
Only months beforehand the department had recommended a warning sign limiting the number of people on the platform to 10 be erected, but this was never carried out.
‘‘I was very angry when I heard about this the first time.
‘‘But you have to try and get over your anger for why it happened otherwise it will eat you up.
‘‘As a parent we are the ones who are left serving a life sentence – there will be no weddings, no birthdays, no grandchildren to celebrate and enjoy.’’
De-Anne, who was born in Christchurch and lived her early childhood in Greymouth before attending intermediate and secondary school in Blenheim, enrolled in the outdoor recreation course only a few months beforehand to help her application towards joining the the police force.
The adventurous, easy going, fearless teenager was a keen junior civil defence volunteer, avid netball player and umpire.
‘‘I often think about where she would be now.
‘‘I think she would be married with a couple of children, and following her dream of being a police officer.’’
The anger at her daughter’s needless death – there were reports the platform had moved the day before the accident when a group of people were standing on it – never really goes away, she said.