What a confusing time for her . Her will to be with her Dad won and with the look of fear and confusion in her eyes she said she was going up .
At this point , despite her determination , I knew she would not go far . Call it Mother ’ s intuition , I saw in her eyes a look . It broke my heart . On one hand , she wanted to make her Dad proud . On the other , she was scared and confused .
We called Wayne on his mobile a few times and finally she relaxed . Kate , Ashlee and I took our time and enjoyed the Marla Walk along the base . They both soaked up all the stories and culture . They loved seeing the ‘ school ’ and we all discussed how life might have been . Daddy called from the top and we all enjoyed listening to him explain what he could see . “ Miles of nothing !”
I watched her walk away , once again , tears streaming down my face . Kate was by my side and at 5 years old , she was unaware of all the kafuffle . She just wanted to know when we could get an ice cream !
Ashlee made it about 30 metres up before she came running back to me . I grabbed her in my arms and deep down I was so proud of her . We were both crying now and the words that came out of her mouth made me cry even more .
“ Oh Mum , the Aborigines … the Aborigines … Oh Mum , they really don ’ t want us to climb , we shouldn ’ t climb … Oh Mum …”.
At this point , I was glad the message had sunk in … but then it turned to …“ Oh Mum … Daddy ’ s going to die !! It ’ s so steep , I couldn ’ t do it … people die Mum … Why did Daddy go ?” ( Shit !)
Just over 2 hours later Wayne made his way down the rock . He was exhausted and the girls raced to him with arms wide open , gushing all over him . He was safe ! He was happy ! Despite my emotionally draining morning , I was happy for him too … and so glad that it was all over .
The next hour was spent consoling my poor emotional little 8 year old daughter , loving her so much at this point because of all the pulls and tugs on her emotions , all the processing of information was just too much for her but at the same time she was learning so much !
There is no moral to our story , no lessons for others to learn . This little one is about US , what we felt and how we managed the age old question : To climb , or not to climb ? Will you be climbing ?
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