CTV survivor tells David Fisher of terror and heartbreak at loss of loved colleagues.
Mary-Ann Jackson got back from lunch at 12.20pm, popped her handbag under her desk and sat down at the reception desk of Canterbury Television in Central Christchurch.
The day was a success so far, like so many in 18 years working for CTV. She popped upstairs to talk to managing director Murray Wood about a staff farewell for that week and chatted about his planned family trip abroad later that year.
A musical whiz, Wood was travelling to the UK with his wife and six children on a choir tour. He could barely contain his excitement, she said.
Jackson returned to her desk.
The quake that killed her colleagues and up to another 100 people came 24 minutes later.
Jackson: "I ran for my life. I had seconds. I was the only one to run out. I couldn't grab my coat or bag. I knew I would die if I did. I thought it was the end of the world.
"I could feel the building breaking up. It all came down as I went through - the windows were coming in at me, the frames were coming in at me.
"I could hear crackling and the break-up of the building.
"I didn't even look back. I turned around when I got to the other side of the road and the building was down ... six floors were down. It was seconds and that building was flattened.
"No one ran behind me. They wouldn't have time to get down the stairs. There's a big Samoan church there [across the road] and the whole side of it fell into Madras St. Wherever I ran there were buildings coming down. You didn't know where to run.
"I was covered in dust, people were hysterical."
Jackson stood on the corner in the dust and terror, alone until she saw colleague Tom Hawker, whose 21st birthday party most staff had attended the weekend before. He was with a staff member who had left the building to get lunch. A third joined them, in tears.
"Jo Giles' daughter turned up and was hugging us and saying: 'Is my mother in there?' 'I think so', I told her."
The group moved to Latimer Square. A makeshift aid centre was erected as more people came.
Jackson left after three hours with a CTV colleague who lived close to her Mt Pleasant home, and together they returned to the eastern suburbs.
Jackson's partner George Jakubans arrived and they stayed with her friend that night, hunkered down in a ruined home with a space cleared among the chaos. They tuned in the radio and waited for sleep that never came.
"We didn't sleep at all that night. All night the aftershocks were happening."
On Wednesday morning, Jackson returned home to find the house where she raised her two boys and daugher was still standing but ruined inside. She turned off the power, collected what clothes she could reach - including an impractical pair of white trousers - and sealed the smashed windows with plastic. Mitre10 had survived and was doing a roaring trade.
Jackson's phone was under six floors of CTV building. On Wednesday, she rang family and friends who believed she had been killed.
Just after dark, the couple headed for Methven where Jakubans has a backpacker hostel. She slept most of the way there in the car, and went straight to bed on arrival.
On Thursday she returned to Mt Pleasant to begin the clean up. "This is my house," she says, showing us around her home.
The Mt Pleasant house is fractured within. The chimney has collapsed in the centre, its bricks amid the shattered glass on the sitting room floor. A piano has been shunted from the wall, the pantry emptied to the kitchen floor.
She brushes dust and grit from the broken frames of treasured family photographs. "I can't stay here. It's too scary for me."
Then, Jackson says: "I'm alive." It's as if she needs to test out loud the truth of the claim. Tears come then. "We were a great team at CTV. It was like family. Murray Wood was the best boss anyone could have."
She sobs. "I can't say they are dead ... There were young mothers and young gorgeous talented boys in their 20s and 30s. Matty [Beaumont] was engaged to be married, [Andrew] Bish [Bishop] had just bought his house, Donna had teenage children, Sue had only just started, Jojo had three daughters and a son. They will be devastated. Jo Didham had two little girls.
"I can't say they are dead."
