Sita Walker

What happened in the summer of 1989?

In the summer of 1989, my sister and her boyfriend, Ashley, who was an angelic boy, and their friends went to a U2 concert in Brisbane.

And when they were driving back from the U2 concert, they were all asleep in the back of the car.

Rani was asleep.

Ashley was asleep.

And the teenager that was driving the car also fell asleep.

And the car went off the road and hit a tree.

And my sister was taken to the hospital and she was in a coma.

And

my mother and father had to make the decision of whether to turn off her life support or not, and they decided to do that.

What do you remember of the funeral?

I remember the funeral being at the Garden of Remembrance in Toowoomba, which is actually a beautiful cemetery where the plaques are laid into the grass, flat into the grass...

But I remember being close to my aunt, my Auntie Mary, my mother's eldest sister.

And I remember her sari, which was a scarlet colour with gold on the edges.

And I remember I had a pink dress on and some shoes that were very tight.

I was only eight years old, so I don't remember a lot, but I remember that my shoes were very uncomfortable and I'd said to my Auntie Mary, who had pulled me up onto her lap, I said, my feet are hot.

And she said, take your shoes off and put your feet on the grass.

And so I took my shoes off and I put my feet on the grass and I remember the grass feeling cold.

And

I looked at my aunt and she looked at me and she put her hand like a fist next to her chest and she said, we have to be strong like this.