THE blooming of a rose, the popping of a champagne cork, the unexpected kindness of a stranger.
These are the “big, little things” that have helped Brisbane’s Delsorte family on their road to recovery after their Sherwood home went under in Brisbane’s floods on January 12 last year.
But as Eddy Delsorte puts it what’s been “really constant, really staggering has been the way the Lord has always provided especially in the darker times”.
Just over a year ago, Eddy was in tears as he watched murky floodwaters from the Brisbane River claim his house of 30 years.
A neighbour bought him a bottle of champagne at the time.
“He said, ‘Well, we may as well have a toast as we watch it go down’.
“It reminded me of the Titanic.”
On the flood’s first anniversary, Eddy joined with daughter Teresa to share another champagne toast, this time to the house’s – and his family’s – survival through the traumatic event.
Eddy told The Catholic Leader, facing the flood’s many challenges had made him and his wife Anne “much stronger and more faith-filled”.
“We’ve come to rely on the Lord and to be aware of his provision,” he said.
When the floods struck, Anne had been training catechists in The Catechesis of the Good Shepherd program in Melbourne.
By January 15, she was back to join Eddy and visit their ruined Sherwood home.
As they looked at their bedraggled garden they saw a sign of hope.
“We were afraid our rose bush might never bloom again,” Eddy said.
“Initially it was covered in mud and looked dead.
“However, a week after the flood the rose bloomed.
“It was a small thing, but we had the feeling we were being looked after.”
As the water departed and the Delsortes sought to make their house habitable, significant issues emerged.
There was the waterlogged, muddy kitchen.
“We thought we might get away with cleaning it up, but the mud had got into the wood’s very grain,” Eddy said.
“It would need to be replaced.
“Two months had passed, the insurance company didn’t look like it was going to cover it.
“Then, within three days of us deciding what sort of kitchen we’d like, a couple offered us a lot of money.
“A woman also approached us in St Stephen’s Cathedral and said she’d heard we’d been affected by the flood and would like to help us financially.
“So the kitchen was completed. Then we moved onto repairing the floor.
“It would have to be repolished and someone hearing about this, phoned and offered to pay for it.
“In other words it seemed as soon as a need arose, the Lord would provide.”
In December there was even a visit from a member of their Corinda-Graceville parish with “a beautifully crafted nativity set”.
“So despite all the pain, the support has been amazing”,” he said.
A television documentary on the anniversary of the floods was a further reminder of reasons to be grateful.
“Here we are still hurting, but look at people who’ve lost their lives, who’ve lost families,” he said.
“I just can’t imagine what it would be like for those who’ve lost their families as well as their homes.
“I also don’t know how people would get through all this without their faith.”
Eddy said by receiving so much the family had learnt much about giving.
“I’d say we’ve become more attuned to the Lord’s promptings … to phone so-and-so who may need support, for example,” he said.
“To offer such help may seem a little thing but our experiences this past year show how big, little things can be.”
