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RELATED: A mother’s love
When Cindy Lehmann stepped into her car one evening last August she should have been back home within minutes.
The 58-year-old mother and renowned foster carer had sons Joel and Bo with her and was driving the short trip to take Bo to work.
Mrs Lehmann reached the Rooneys Road and Raglan Parade intersection and, thinking it was clear, continued on. She hadn’t seen the oncoming truck. The impact left her with multiple broken bones and serious head injuries. Mrs Lehmann died in a Melbourne hospital two weeks later.
“We still miss her. I had one fella say to me ‘it’s time to move on’, but she was my partner for nearly 40 years. A partner, a friend, a companion and a lover, it’s pretty hard to comprehend she’s not here,” Mr Lehmann said.
“We’ve got to get on with our lives, you’ve just got to keep going. There’s not a day where we don’t think about her.”
More than 500 people attended Mrs Lehmann’s funeral. She was a woman known for her generosity and big heart.
In two decades of foster caring together, the Lehmanns welcomed more than 300 children into their home, as well as bringing up their own biological children.
After his wife’s death, Mr Lehmann gave up work to become a full-time dad and stay involved in foster care.
“I love doing it and I love continuing on what Cindy and I did together.”
Photos of Cindy, her certificates and her awards adorn the family’s lounge room. The Lehmanns might be moving on, but they will never forget.
“I often think ‘what would Cindy do in a situation like this?’ and I reflect back on her and also a number of times I’ve said ‘mum used to do that’ to the kids, ‘remember when mum used to do this?’.
“We’re moving on, I think the main thing out of this is the kids keep me busy, with my foster care side of it, and that’s a really good thing.”
However, Mr Lehmann said there were still dark moments.
“I still have my times where I sit down here, I play Cindy’s slides on the TV and miss her and just think ‘I wish you were here’, but the kids keep me going,” he said.
“I think ‘right, I’ve got to get going, the kids have got to be here, the kids have got to be there’, and that picks me up. When you hear one of them come up and say ‘gee dad, I love you’, that’s what I’m aiming at.”
To mark the first anniversary of the accident, the family visited Mrs Lehmann’s grave near Hamilton and Mr Lehmann, along with Joel and Bo, laid a wreath at the intersection where the accident happened.
“It wasn’t easy and probably not easy for them because they were in the accident,” Mr Lehmann said.
“But they didn’t feel bad after they did it, I think they felt more relieved in a way.”
Mr Lehmann said community support had helped the family find its feet again and, while he was getting on with everyday life, the pain of his wife’s loss would continue.
“We all miss her terribly,” he said.
“You hear about these things happening to other people on the news and all of a sudden when it happens to you… you don’t realise what they’re going through, until now.”