“It had been my father’s birthday,” Judith said. 

RELATED: Granville Rail Distaster: remembered forty years on | Photos

RELATED: Granville memories linger

The next day Judith’s mother Elvie Radford, who was born and grew up in Wingham, was killed in the Granville train disaster at the age of 47. It was January 18, 1977 and Judith, now of Hallidays Point, was at home in Penrith with her 10-month-old daughter Lyndell.

“I kept hearing bits of news of a disaster and I’m just thinking it’s in Pakistan or somewhere like that. Finally it dawned that it was local and that it was about the time both my mum and sister were on the train,” Judith said. Without a home phone, Judith searched the shops for a working phone. 

“I rang my Dad and they said ‘oh he’s not here, he got a phone call and just dropped the phone and ran’. That’s when I knew that was the train.”

Living in Emu Plains at the time, Elvie had started work two weeks earlier with one of the newspapers in Sydney selling advertisements. Judith said, “she got the job because she wanted to earn the money to travel”. 

Judith’s sister had got off the train at Parramatta minutes earlier. 

“I know for years I wouldn’t catch the train. The word Granville still sends shivers down my spine.” 

“I had never had anyone close to me die. I’m a social worker and it gave me such an understanding of what loss is to people. Before that I didn’t really understand the depth of loss. Now in my job within oncology at Manning Hospital I deal with a lot of loss.”

Life without her mother was difficult for Judith, but the spirit of Elvie has always been there. 

“I think you do rely on your mum and when you realise you don’t have your mum, you are a bit alone in the world,” she said. 

“I think she would have loved technology. She never saw computers, mobile phones or any of that. She would have been one of those people as she got older she would have embraced not rejected it. She’s always been there - she pops up in my dreams. I don’t believe in ghosts but I just feel she’s still around. I picture her as she was, she will always be 47, in that dreadful safari suit she bought.” 

“I know that people are saying now – that nobody did anything and we got poor compensation but I don’t think at the time that was on people’s minds,” Judith said.

“Last week I was sent a link from my cousin to a story saying the government was going to say they were sorry and I just thought: too little too late.

“I think the apology is important to some people, for me you can’t un-do the past. I guess it is important it is acknowledged, it would be better to think changes have been made from it.”

“I don’t want to think it happened because of poor track work – I’ve never watched that movie Days of the Roses, I can’t do that,” Judith said, 

“I couldn't watch when that landslide happened down in the Snowy Mountains, I got to a point where I couldn’t watch anything like that, it was too distressing.

“I don’t want to watch all the gorey details, I think it becomes disaster porn in a way and we tend to be glued to the television and watch wars taking place and dreadful things.

“I’m not saying you shouldn’t, you should be aware of it, but I don’t want to sit there and watch every detail.

“What wasn’t helpful was any time the TV talked about any sort of disaster they would flash up pictures of Granville and they would actually make me very angry.” 

“Working in the hospital I see ladies who would have been her age. I often think maybe that’s what my mum would look like,” Judith said. 

“She always wanted to do the grand tour of the UK and Europe and she was working towards that. My dad did the trip years later with his sister.”