NSW: Charity begins at what used to be home

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NSW: Charity begins at what used to be home

By Doug Conway, Senior Correspondent

SYDNEY, Dec 7 AAP - A curious thing has started happening to Christine Lamont. Moneyis finding its way into her wallet that she knows isn't hers.

She's not the least bit puzzled about where it's coming from, though - family, friendsand neighbours.

It's their way of helping someone who lost virtually everything she owned in this week'sSydney bushfires, while sparing her any embarrassment in accepting their charity.

"It makes me feel proud to be an Australian," Mrs Lamont said as she stood in the ashesof her home.

Much the same thing is happening to Jim and Marjorie Milne, the retired couple nextdoor in St Georges Crescent, Sandy Point.

"People have been writing them cheques," said their daughter Alison as she fossickedin the ruins of the house she grew up in.

"Money has been coming from people they didn't even know all that well."

Their story is a timely reminder that Christmas is a time of giving.

The Milne residence is little more than a shell.

Everything inside is charred and the roof has caved in.

There's no chimney for Santa to get down, but there is a pristine, metre-high Christmastree standing incongruously on the front patio.

Mrs Lamont doesn't even have a shell left.

Her fibro, cement and corrugated iron home has been razed to the ground.

She wasn't even able to rescue her photo albums.

They were kept in her daughter's caravan alongside the house - a caravan which is nolonger recognisable.

"That's what's left of her photos," said family friend Tony Powell pointing to a pileof charred paper on the ground.

Mrs Lamont received a visit today from NSW Premier Bob Carr, who checked to ensurethat she received her $10,000 emergency funding grant from the Community Disaster ReliefFund.

She had. She was also insured, but there are some things that can't be compensated for.

Mrs Lamont, in a scene touchingly reminiscent of the movie The Castle, said she plannedto rebuild her house on the same block.

"I'll take that risk all over again," she said.

"But given the choice between a new house, and what I had, I'd take what I had.

"It was home."

AAP dc/ph/br

KEYWORD: BUSHFIRES NSW WALLET