Each week, Samantha Lewis shares her insights on various topics, from exploring new health trends to reimagining personal growth.

5.10am, Thursday, January 15. Day nine (I think).

Well, at least my 5am wake-up routine is back on track. I can’t sleep.

The past few days have been a blur as I’ve done whatever I can to assist with logistics getting stock and pet feed into fire-affected areas, as well as food, water, clothing, portable showers, generators, lights, plumbers to get water flowing, and to wrangle and mobilise hundreds of volunteers, donors, administrative and physical labour.

It has been huge.

It has been overwhelming.

But when you’re in it, there’s no time to process.

In fact, there is risk in allowing yourself time to process, because it can be jarring, and there ain’t no time for pause.

I want to use this week’s column to tell you about some of the incredible people and acts of kindness that have overwhelmed me, in the best possible way.

Firstly, our local MP and friend, Annabelle Cleeland, has blown me away with her strength and her unwavering dedication to serving her community.

So selfless, she too has lost.

While her home remains standing, everything else on their farm is gone.

As keyboard warriors commented “easy for you, sitting in the car”, she was in fact evacuating, trying to put aside her own fear of leaving her husband behind to defend, remaining calm on the phone for her children who were listening to our conversation.

She spoke of having full faith in her husband’s instincts, yet feeling anxious as visibility dropped and ash began to fall.

He had just texted her to say it was raining ash.

They went to her sister’s in Yarck, only to be evacuated again at 5am the following day.

As of Thursday, Annabelle still has not been out to her own property. Unwilling to take a personal moment, every minute has been spent actively fighting for and supporting her community.

If it weren’t for Annabelle pulling together the incredible team that I am honoured to be part of, I genuinely don’t know what people would have done.

There hadn’t been a single government organisation on site until yesterday (day eight, I think).

The community has taken care of itself, supported by our wider community. Aussie Hay Runners has been extraordinary.

The stock agents, looking after their farmers, Elders, Hunters, Nutrien, and businesses who were already doing it tough, have given and given again.

But it’s the people.

People like Micah, who though only a child at the time, clearly recalls living through Black Saturday, phoning me to say:

“I’m coming up from Kinglake. I’ve got all my machinery tickets.

“I’m bringing my chainsaw, guns, ammo, ute, trailer to cart hay.

“I can fix fences, do all farm tasks.

“Happy to work through the night.

“I’ll bring my Kanga front loader. I’ll just roll out my swag wherever.

“Drop me a pin and I’ll be there tomorrow.”

It’s people like the Tubb family, who have worked around the clock, opening their property as what was meant to be a hay depot, but has quickly become an emergency relief centre in its own right.

It’s people donating whatever they can.

People simply turning up and asking for direction.

People calling from all over the state to say they’re on the road, four hours away, how many trucks they have and what they’re carting, asking only, “Where do you want us to go?”

Beautiful, beautiful people.

It has been all-consuming, deeply humbling, and a time I will never forget.

Keep taking care of each other.

Check-ins mean more than you know, even if you don’t get a response.

Those who have been on the ground have lived through unimaginable horror.

As a friend who also fought the Black Saturday fires said to me last night, “I never thought I would see anything worse than what we fought back then, but I did on Friday. That was worse.”

While I remain busy sending essentials up into the hills, having looked into the faces of those who have come down, I have no intention of going up.

These people are not okay. They will not be okay for quite some time.

Please, do whatever you can to support them.

• If you’ve been directly affected, are worried for loved ones, or are feeling distressed by the recent fires, Beyond Blue offers free 24/7 mental health and wellbeing support on 1300 22 4636 or via web chat at beyondblue.org.au/get-support.

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