A Day Without Telling

The telephone rang at 19 Hobart Road at 3:47 in the morning. Jane Lahey answered it. The caller was a consular officer at the Australian Embassy in Bern, who told her that a helicopter carrying her daughter and son-in-law had crashed in the Alps near Zermatt the previous afternoon, that the rescue teams had found no survivors, and that formal identification had not yet been completed.

Patrick and Jane spent the rest of the night at the kitchen table. Oscar and Sarah were asleep down the hall. Before dawn Jane made the decision that the children would not be told anything until the deaths were confirmed. Patrick did not argue with her. The children went to school as usual. Oscar noticed only that his grandmother was quiet at breakfast and that his grandfather drove them to the bus stop instead of letting them walk.

The day passed with the telephone silent. Jane did not go to work. She cleaned the kitchen twice and sorted Pip's folder of instructions for the children into a different order. Patrick spent most of the afternoon in his workshop. When the bus brought the children home, Oscar went straight out to join him there, wanting to show him a science mark, and Sarah sat at the kitchen table with her homework and talked to her grandmother about a story she was writing.

Two officers from Tasmania Police came to the door a little after six. Patrick answered it and knew before either of them spoke. They confirmed that Gregory and Philippa Lahey had been identified among the dead. Jane, who had held herself together for fourteen hours, collapsed in the hallway. Oscar heard her cry out from the workshop. Patrick told the children together in the lounge room while Jane held Sarah, who was crying before he had finished speaking. Oscar asked no questions and went outside.

On Boyer Road, police delivered the same news to Thomas and Margaret Lahey. Greg's youngest sister, Linda Longey, collapsed when her husband Richard told her, and arrived at Hobart Road within two hours to help with whatever needed doing. Most of what needed doing could not be done that night.

Oscar learned some days later that his grandparents had known since before dawn. He took it badly, and did not forgive Jane for it for a long time.