Deborah Richardson

An absolute tragedy for Angela.

She was working in the city watch house across the road beside the courts and they used to toss a coin at lunchtime to see who would go and pick up the luncheon and she lost and she got to the middle of the road where she was standing with another policeman and a magistrate and the two men decided to wait because cars were coming across and

And Angela ran in front of the cars and unfortunately caught the full blast of the bomb.

I stayed in bed for eight days under instructions of my doctor.

And on the eighth day, I looked at my parents and I said, if I don't get out of bed today, I'm never going to get out.

And I knew in that moment that my

my career, my life that I had chosen, I was still to be of service.

That's what I wanted to do.

And in some ways, walking back into Russell Street that day was harder than the day of the bomb because the bomb was unexpected.

You didn't know what was going to happen.

And I recall parking my car and walking past all these vehicles, you know, with my heart pumping and

thinking, is there a bomb in those ones?

And I got inside and walked into my office and it was still trailing with the bomb detectives.

And as I got to the door, they looked at me and said, oh, gee, you were lucky, Deb.

And I went, yeah, I know I was.

And they went, no, no, you were really lucky.

And they said somebody had put a piece of chipboard against your window and that's what saved your life.

So, as you said, we were both members of the police force and there was a legitimate organisation at that stage that had approached Victoria Police to say that they had some children whose parents were first responders on the scene at Chernobyl, the nuclear disaster, and they really wanted to give these children some respite.

And...

you know, they put the call out and said, will anyone be a foster family member?