Bus crash tragedy - 'WE WON'T LET THIS HAPPEN AGAIN'

Ten people's lives were lost in the devastating Hunter Valley bus crash in June. Now, facing Christmas without loved ones, three parents speak to The Weekly about their quest for a safer world.

- GENEVIEVE GANNON

The Singleton sky was a pale shade of blue, and the violet jacarandas and golden silky oaks were blooming. At the showgrounds, amid a solemn crowd, a mother climbed the steps to a temporary stage.

Jacqui Varasdi had been dreading this day, as she had come to dread so many mundane things since tragedy had split her life in two and snatched her first-born son, Zach, from this world. She knew she was not alone in that feeling and so, to honour those who were there with her and those who were not, she began to speak.

“Don’t think of them as gone away, their journey’s just begun. Life holds so many facets, this earth is only one … ”

In front of her, emergency services workers sat side by side, the SES in their orange uniforms, the NSW Rural Fire Service in yellow. Their protective gear shone in the morning glare, looking like the “bright lights in the dark” they’d been, as they’d fought so hard to save the lives being mourned. Tears rolled down the faces of the servicemen and women as Jacqui read on.

She had chosen a poem called His Journey’s Just Begun but she had altered it for the occasion and renamed it Our Beautiful Ten.

“He [Zach] was a lucky unlucky one,” Jacqui reflects, weeks later. “He was the happiest I’d ever heard him the day before. I’m just glad he was super happy. They had a fantastic day and as I said at the memorial, they’re all together and that, for me, is comforting to know.”