Vale, Diane Smith: A sister's tribute for Eugowra flood victim

Loved mother of Chris, David, Simon and their partners, loving Nanny of Nevaeh, Jett, Mia, Macey and Elsie. Beloved daughter of Elaine and Wally Townsend, loved sister of Tim, Dan, Mary, Therese, Denise and their families.

Di's funeral was at St Matthew's Anglican Church on Monday, November 28 and her sister Mary Norris shared this beautiful reflection on Di and the community she loved.

Mother Nature, wow, She sure can put on a show.

A friend of mine sent me a little saying, "You never know how strong you are until being strong is the only option you have."

I think this should be Eugowra's new town motto.

In the past 25 years Eugowra has been through a fire, two droughts, countless floods, mice plagues, COVID and whatever that was we went through a fortnight ago.

I think we have earned the right to say, "We are strong, but we are weary, that will do for now."

Chris, David, Simon, Mum, Dad, Tim, Danny, Me, Therese, Denise, Peter Smith, and Tim Cheney, our partners, our nieces and nephews, and Diane's grandchildren Neveah, Jett, Mia, Macey, and Elsie would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge and thank the people of Eugowra for your help, love, and support over the last two weeks.

To the young people of the town. The ones still at school and the ones not long out of school.

We see you. You stood up and you stepped up when you were needed.

You put yourselves in danger, you helped to save people's lives, you witnessed and experienced trauma.

You assisted with the clean up and listened to people's stories. The future is in good hands with you all.

You had great people showing you the way. The not-so-old fellas of the town. As always you were there when you were needed. I will not name anyone, because I would hate to leave anyone out.

You did not stop until everyone was safe.

I think we need to do one more mural. It needs to be a couple of big trucks with you all hanging off the side of them. And a sign down the bottom saying, "It's ok mate, we've got you".

Diane loved the mural weekends and the mural family. She made many friends amongst the people that came to Eugowra.

Diane loved any social gathering. Like the saying goes "She would go to the opening of an envelope". So long as there were people there and she could have a laugh.

Diane was a great community member, she enjoyed delivering meals on wheels to people, making sure they were ok and catching up with everyone.

We thank the wonderful ladies of our town. You were there as always. Helping with the rescues, a welcome face and providing comfort, while being traumatised yourselves. You gave endless hours and days of support.

Diane would most definitely have been there.

What happened here in Eugowra is a terrible thing. Nobody should be feeling guilty for anything. We all know if anything could have been done to help Diane and Les, then it would have been done.

We are so grateful we are only saying goodbye to two people out of this tragedy. It could easily have been so many more.

Diane loved Eugowra. We all know her story.

Mum and Dad met, they married, they had babies. Six of us. They settled in Eugowra which has always been Dad's hometown.

When Diane and Peter separated, she came home to Eugowra to raise her precious babies. Christopher, David, and Simon.

We are so grateful she did. They now have families of their own.

Diane welcomed her daughter in laws Aimee, Amanda, and Va into her family with open arms. She loved them and she loved having them as part of her family.

She loved people going to visit her. There was always a drink in the fridge out the back, and stories to tell.

Bella reckons she would hear the same story over and over again, but hey there is a lot of us, we all forget who we have told a story to and who has not heard it yet.

I loved her lolly jar. She loved that cheeky people would wrap up fake lollies for me to find.

Diane loved summer. When she put her pool in, she always enjoyed us going around and using it.

She had the ability to always produce a platter of bickies and dip. We loved Diane's cob loaves and dips, thank goodness Kahlia had already decided to help her out here.

Tim Cheney and Elaine. We would like to thank you for all your family shared with Diane over the last 10 years. She loved your holidays together, she loved Stan. She loved you.

We appreciated your love and support of Diane through out her cancer. And Diane loved that you took such good care of her.

Yes Tim, she loved the cocktails. Diane really enjoyed organising the cocktail afternoon fundraisers for the Bowling Club.

After all the operations Diane went through 10 years ago, her cancer was luckily gone. However, she had been in continual pain ever since. Sometimes she could be a bit short tempered, some days she was a bit moody, some days she just wanted to hide away at home. She didn't mean to be, it was the pain talking.

We can be grateful she is no longer in pain.

Diane absolutely loved her home and her garden.

If she spent a whole day in her garden, she would ring me that night saying, "just talk to me quick", as the pain was so great she could hardly breath.

I would talk about anything and everything until I could hear her breathing was back to normal and we were able to laugh about something.

Tim is right, a phone conversation with Diane could last for hours.

We have enormous praise and gratitude to the helicopter pilots and the people winching our friends off the rooves of houses. How incredible are these guys.

I do not know how you all managed to get onto rooves and into trees, and to hang onto whatever you were hanging onto, but we are eternally grateful you were strong enough to do so. We would love to hear your stories over time.

Diane would not have enjoyed being saved that way. Neither would Therese or Jack, or Brother Tim. We do not do heights well.

Diane loved sewing. And she was good at it. We have used some of her quilts her today.

She bought material to make some little outfits for Nevaeh, Jett, Mia, Macey, and Elsie. She was so excited she did not which one to start with. I have cut up some of this material to use out the cemetery.

Andrew Gee, what an amazing human, thank you for your support us and of our town over the past two weeks.

Liz Mitchell, I hope you can feel the love this town has for you.

There is so much more I can say, however, I will finish with, thank you so much to everyone in Eugowra for your love and support.

This event has been traumatic for everyone. Please take care of yourselves and each other.