‘Utter devastation’

By Melissa Meehan
“WORSE than I could ever imagine.”
Marysville’s Jenny Pullen struggles to find words to describe the town she calls home.
“Absolutely horrific,” she says. “Words can’t explain it – worse than Hiroshima.”
The owner of Allwah Tourist Cottages described the journey back to Marysville – a week after Black Saturday – as surreal.
“My son, who is a firefighter for the DSE, warned me, so I knew that we had lost everything,” Jenny said.
“But, the utter devastation of it all, I can’t explain it.”
She described the bus ride to what was left of the town as eerily silent.
“People were just collecting their thoughts on the way there,” she said.
“But as we reached their properties people just broke down.”
A token of what is left is all Jenny wants, but a condition of the bus trip was that no one was to leave the bus.
“I understand why we weren’t allowed off the bus, but it’s all I want,” she said.
“Everything is gone; it would just be nice to have a token.”
Surrounded by nine members of her family, Jenny said that all on the bus offered support to one another.
“That is what is so good about Marysville, we are a very close-knit community,” she said.
“The trip really brought some closure, it would have been nice to walk down the street, but it’s a crime scene, we have to respect that, especially for our friends that were left behind.”
Now 10 Pullen family members are staying together in a house in Alexandra.
“The owners of the house have moved into a motor home so that we can live together,” Jenny said.
“Its really heart-warming that people will do that for us.
“We just wanted to stay together, I didn’t care where, but we are so blessed to be able to stay together.”
Although she feels that part of her has died with Marysville, Jenny plans to rebuild her home there, but says it’s too early to think about rebuilding her business.
“We will rebuild, but at this stage it doesn’t look like happening soon,” she said.
“I feel like the business part of me died with the fire, but it is too early to say – I’m still in shock.”