8 December 1999 Jaime sent letter from SOCOG notifying her of her selection as a Torchbearer.
10 December 1999 Jaime received the above letter in the mail. Jaime was with a friend when she received the letter. They met up with me outside the Fitzgerald’s house in Draper Street (I was returning home from Nanny’s) and she said “Guess what I am?” I replied “A teenager!” She laughed and said no and asked me to guess again. I replied “Two teenagers!” She then told me she was a torchbearer. I squealed really loud then and we all did a kind of a dance. We then started telling everyone we could.
13 December 1999 Jaime was sent another letter from SOCOG giving her more details on her selection and requesting that she not tell anyone - even family – that she had been selected. It was too late. We’d told everyone possible, even strangers – at least I did, Jaime was a lot quieter about it.
December 1999 - June 2000 Jaime firmly stated she would not carry the torch a number of times during this period. She realised that she’d be the one that everyone would be looking at and it scared her. She wanted family and friends to run with her and was upset when told they couldn’t. I had to state very clearly that only one torchbearer ran at a time but that she would have an escort runner. She was frightened that she would not be able to run the entire distance (she only had a couple of training sessions), that she’d fall over, that the flame would go out, that she’d be puffed, etc. She had panic attacks a few times but I explained it was pre-performance nerves – that it was natural to be nervous, just like before she went on stage, but that once she was running, the nerves would disappear – just like on stage. I reminded her of the exultation she felt after a performance and explained that it would be the same after the run. I had to break things gently to her during this period to get her used to the idea. The times I pushed her (like when she found out that I had asked friends to carry banners – which they didn’t do anyway) – she dug her toes in - things like the interviews and running in front of a large crowd. I didn’t handle it too well, but it was all new to me as well.
5 May 2000 Jaime sent a letter and parcel from SOCOG containing the details of her Run and her uniform.
May 2000 I received notification in the mail that a parcel for Jaime was waiting at the Post Office. I decided not to tell Jaime, wanting to surprise her instead. She went to work (The Cookie Man’s, Cairns Central). I asked her friend Bill Byrne to drive me down to the Post Office – had planned to pick up the parcel, then have her open it while we were all having a cuppa at McDonald’s. The Post Office was closed.
May 2000 Jaime and Bill drove up and picked up the parcel before school. It looks really gorgeous on her. It was so exciting. Receiving the uniform made it seem more real somehow. There was a flyer inside – A Day in the Life of a Torchbearer, describing what it would be like on the day of her run. I tried to make sure she understood it as it answered a lot of her fears, but I don’t think she did.
July 2000 I received a letter from Trinity Bay High School today asking me to congratulate Jaime for being selected as a torchbearer. I took it to work to show Jaime as she came through on her way home to change and go to work. She read it and then said that she had a better one. She then pulled out a large envelope from Warren Entsch, our Federal Member. There was a letter and a certificate inside for her congratulating her on her selection.
Reference: Diary entries from the private collection of Marjorie Earl
(c) Marjorie Earl photograph.
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