Ten years on ... remembering Bali

Connie Watson still chokes up with emotion as she remembers the support provided to her in the weeks, months and years following the Bali bombings a decade ago today.

The Busselton resident was inside the Sari Club with friend Carol Johnstone on October 12, 2002 when a bomb loaded into a van outside the club detonated just after 11pm, followed by a second bomb across the road.

The co-ordinated attacks killed 202 people including 88 Australians and injured scores more.

Speaking to the Times ahead of the 10th anniversary, Mrs Watson said she still vividly remembered the night.

The two friends, who worked together at Busselton Senior High School, were on a family holiday and decided to stop by the club for a drink after a bit of late night shopping.

“I remember we got there at exactly 10.39pm and decided to have one drink,” Mrs Watson said.

“I remember everything. It was just deafening and all I thought was I didn’t think I would die like this.”

Mrs Watson suffered severe burns, fractures, multiple shrapnel injuries and damage to her ears as a result.

Her recovery took years, involving nine operations and rehabilitation to learn to walk again, which was hard for a woman who had always been heavily involved in physical activities.

“Mentally it was really tough, a roller coaster. I guess I set goals and chose the obstacles I needed to overcome to get through it,” she said.

“I set myself physical goals to assist my emotional recovery.”

Mrs Watson described the recovery process as “frustrating” as a mother to two young children.

“I couldn’t physically be a mum and get up and make lunches and get them to school on time,” she said.

“But you had to come to terms with the fact that if I was going to be good for them in the long term, in the short term I had to focus on each day.

“If I didn’t get better, that wouldn’t be good for anyone.”

But it was the death of her friend Carol to the terrorist attack which proved the hardest to deal with.

“That was the worse part, dealing with the grief. The physical injury you get over but the grief is much harder,” she said.

Today, Mrs Watson chooses to remember the support provided from friends, family and complete strangers in the community during her recovery.

“I had lots of support, and I need to acknowledge that support from the community, from the health professionals and family and friends, it’s what got me through,” she said.

“They are the reason that you never give in or give up because so many people invested so much.”

Mrs Watson has accomplished plenty in the past decade, completing her first half ironman in 2005 and her first full Ironman WA in 2007.

However, the memories will never completely disappear.

“Because you have physical scars, it’s not something that disappears, there is no hiding from those, you just get better at managing the situation,” she said.

Mrs Watson returned to Bali this week with her family to commemorate the anniversary.

“I’ve been back to Bali a couple of times, I went back just before the first anniversary,” she said.

“It was a must-do personally. It was really confronting, very challenging, very emotional, but also an essential part of the recovery process.

“From the beginning I thought it wasn’t healthy to look at (the situation) as being a victim.

“It was an unfortunate event, but after that you really had to decide how you were going to tackle it and the only way was head on.”