About 10am on September 1, a man walked into the Work and Income office on Cass St in the town and opened fire. Front-desk workers Peggy Noble, 67, and Leigh Cleveland, 55, were shot dead.
Zimbabwe-born Ms Curtis reportedly scrambled to hide under a desk when a shot blasted her leg, causing a serious injury and heavy bleeding.
Minutes later, when police arrived, it is understood they found Ms Curtis on the phone to a paramedic desperately taking instruction on how to stem the bleeding from her wound.
The mother of two daughters was rushed to Christchurch Hospital.
Elder daughter Stacey Curtis, 24, was working out of cellphone range on a Mid-Canterbury farm that morning.
It wasn't until 12.30pm - more than two hours after the shooting - that she got a call from a friend of her mother.
"I had no idea anything had happened," Stacey said from her Ashburton home this week.
"The person who phoned me said, 'There's been a shooting at Winz and one of them is your mum who's been shot, and two people are dead.' And I was like, 'Is my mum alive?' ... I freaked out."
Stacey, who has four children aged from 5 months to 8, visited her mother in hospital that evening.
A security guard allowed her just one minute in the ward, she said.
She was shocked to see her mum lying in the hospital bed with "roughly 178 slugs in her leg".
After a week in hospital, Lindy Curtis was discharged.
She has returned home to look after Stacey's four children. The children were taken from her earlier this year.
Stacey said she hadn't been speaking to her mother since being separated from her children but hoped the shooting would bring them closer.
"Life's too short. I'm glad my mum is alive, [but] I thought maybe it would have made her think about what can happen ... ", she said.
Homeless man Russell John Tully, 48, has been charged with two counts of murder and one of attempted murder.
He will appear at the High Court at Christchurch on Tuesday.
Work and Income officials are urgently trying to find a temporary alternative office after confirming the site of the bloody shooting will never be reopened.
"We appreciate the patience of the Ashburton community as we organise a new site and we will continue to make sure the community is updated," said Work and Income deputy chief executive Debbie Power.
"We are also providing staff with any additional support they may need. Counselling is available for any staff who need it."
