16 Photograph by Adam Ferguson
Letter of Recommendation
My daughter, Floriane, died in April 2015
at the age of 9. We had no idea she was
anything other than perfectly healthy; in
reality, she had a heart defect whose fi rst
outward symptom was sudden cardiac
arrest. One evening we were playing
together, and she collapsed. I tried to
resuscitate her but did not succeed.
In the months following Floriane’s
death, unable to do very much else, I
took up bicycling for the fi rst time since
high school. My usual route took me
from my home in suburban Sydney to
my daughter’s grave site, and it happened
to take me past the station of a volunteer
bushfi re brigade. My curiosity piqued, I
went home and searched for them online.
Among the fi rst things I discovered was
that the brigade had received a citation
on the most recent St. Florian’s Day,
the day that many countries, including
Australia, commemorate the work of
Volunteer Firefi ghting
By David Wall
fi refi ghters. The connection between
the holiday and Floriane’s name was an
astonishing — and to me, meaningful —
coincidence. I’m not one for signs, but it
seemed like one anyway.
I was deep into magical thinking at that
point, only a few months after my phone’s
autocorrect feature had begun to suggest
words like ‘‘funeral’’ and ‘‘casket’’ rather
than ‘‘school’’ and ‘‘friends’’ following
my daughter’s name. I called the brigade
11.14.
Finding solace
amid the flames.
