LIKE countless other families across the state, the Marchingos were reunited last Friday night.<\/p>\n
Ken and Sharon welcomed three of their children back into their Quarry Hill home, alongside partners and grandkids, with pizza, bubbles and open arms.<\/p>\n
Their youngest daughter, Eva, hugged her parents for the first time in almost three months after being separated by the border dividing metropolitan Melbourne and the regions.<\/p>\n
While she enjoyed the freedoms granted to Melburnians two weeks ago, Eva said there was nothing like being home.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was such a nice announcement, but I just cried because as much as it\u2019s nice to go out to the pub, the thing that COVID has made me realise is that the only thing I want to do is come home,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t care about the pub if I can\u2019t see my family.\u201d<\/p>\n
The drive back home with her partner, Pat Hossack, was easy. She\u2019d been making at least monthly trips to her parents\u2019 house ever since her move to the state\u2019s capital four years ago.<\/p>\n
But this one was, of course, different.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember when it hit over to six o\u2019clock and I turned to Pat and asked him what the time was, and he said 6.01pm. I almost cried because it\u2019s like everything lifted,\u201d Eva said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a massive weight off our shoulders, just lifted.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s nothing like being home so every step closer you get is just a little bit more happiness that you get back.\u201d<\/p>\n
Waiting on the other side of the door for her children, Sharon said the family knew what needed to be done to keep safe as the virus began to spread again in early August.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just devastating to be unable to have access to your children. Knowing it\u2019s for all the right reasons, that\u2019s the difficult bit,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur family dog passed away two weekends ago, 15 years we had her, so that was really difficult to go through that.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were times, honestly, where you thought this was never going to end and it just felt longer and longer.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe reality is this could happen again, we don\u2019t know, but I think the whole thing makes you realise that whatever time you\u2019ve got together, it\u2019s just precious and you must treasure it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her husband and former CEO of Haven; Home, Safe, Ken, wanted to reflect on how fortunate his family was despite the challenges of another lockdown, and the courage of the everyday citizen.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor people who are in marginal employment, part-time employment, in the hospitality industry, there\u2019s so many people who have been hurt so badly both emotionally and financially. So many kids at schools who\u2019ve lost two years of schooling,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cNone of these things have actually affected us to any great extent, so for me this has really brought home just how incredibly fortunate we have been.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt really reinforces just how lucky we are and what the gap is between us and the people who have not done it so well. You start to see what the distance is and it\u2019s a big distance.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe next challenge is what do we as a family, as a community do when we think about who got left behind, because it wasn\u2019t their choice.\u201d<\/p>\n
While home, Eva wants to begin a process of preserving her family memories by compiling her father\u2019s travel books into a novel or recording her mother\u2019s many stories.<\/p>\n
As Sharon put it, \u201cfamily is absolutely the most essential part of being human.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LIKE countless other families across the state, the Marchingos were reunited last Friday night. Ken and Sharon welcomed three of their children back into their Quarry Hill home, alongside partners and grandkids, with pizza, bubbles and open arms. Their youngest daughter, Eva, hugged her parents for the first time in almost three months after being […]<\/p>\n