Cathy and Bob LAWTON
Cathy and Bob LAWTON
Editor's note - Cathy and Bob are two of six Australians and one New Zealand national who was living in Perth who are missing on flight MH370. There are thousands of articles about the missing flight, but I have only included one here.
A family friend spotted the news online on the morning of the plane’s disappearance three weeks ago and rang daughter Glenda to ask if it was her parents’ flight.
Another of the couple’s three daughters, Amanda, tells 60 Minutes in an interview to air tonight: “She came across it and then she called Glenda just to confirm ‘is this definitely the flight that they’re on?’ I didn’t believe it, (third daughter) Missy and Glenda were together by the time that they called me and they were hysterical.“I’m just going ‘what do you mean the flight’s gone missing? That’s not possible.’ I immediately jumped on news.com.au and it was the first headline that was on there – flight’s gone missing.”
Cathy’s sister Jeanette recalls: “I got the phone call from Glenda, who rang and said ‘mum and dad’s flight’s gone missing, and turn the TV on straight away’ – and so I had a look, and then I went to my mobile phone because Cathy had given me her itinerary via text so I went to, straight to the phone just to check that that was the flight that they were on.”
It was the start of the family’s nightmare wait for answers for a flight that their mum had had premonitions would go terribly wrong.
Travelling to China with close friends Rodney and Mary Burrows was supposed to be the trip of a lifetime – but in the weeks leading up to the flight MH370 disaster, Cathy Lawton had been plagued by nightmares, her daughters said.
Amanda said: “From about November last year she was going on about how she’s been having all these bad dreams, nightmares, and we’re just like ‘Mum, you’re being silly’.” In fact, Cathy was so nervous in the lead-up to the flight that she was gifted a set of “worry dolls” by a family friend – one of which she took with her on the trip.
“When we went back to the house once, like after we heard the news, we noticed the little pocket of worry dolls sitting next to her bed,” said Amanda said.
“There were three and there were actually four in the pack, so we know the fourth one she’s actually got with her.”
Each of Cathy’s three daughters now carry a doll with them to remind them of their missing mother.
“It’s just something close that knowing mum has had these worry dolls with her at some point,” Amanda said.
Family members of the passengers aboard MH370 have expressed frustration and outrage at Malaysia Airlines, particularly for informing them by a late-night text message stating “none of those on board survived”.
But Cathy’s sister Jeanette believes the airline had done what it could during the “horrific” wait for answers.
"The waiting is just horrible, has been really horrific,” Jeanette said.
“It still seems very surreal that this really happened.
“We still don’t have any wreckage, we’ve got no confirmation. It’s not like when someone has been involved in a car accident so we’re just sitting waiting and waiting.”
She said her greatest fear was a suicidal pilot caused the crash, but counsellors had told her to create her “own ending” to the disaster to help her get through it: “For that, I want a peaceful one and for me there’s something that has gone wrong, they’ve all gone to sleep, they know nothing and that’s what I want to live with at the moment.”
Speaking to The Sunday Mail, daughter Missy said despite it all. the family still held out hope as she still could not believe a plane could just vanish.
“It haunts me to see there are no survivors on the TV, because that shouldn’t have happened in this day and age,” Missy said.
“We’ve still got the hope, even though they assume they are gone.”