THE mother of a Port Arthur victim has told how she had a premonition of her daughter's death and begged her not to holiday in Tasmania.
Joyce Gaylard, 79, said she dreamt of her daughter Elva lying dead next to a bus, three months before the 1996 massacre.
The Geelong grandmother pleaded with her 48-year-old daughter to cancel a planned bus trip to Tasmania.
But Elva dismissed her mother's fears.
"I dreamt that she was lying beside a bus all covered in mud, with no clothes on," Mrs Gaylard said.
"I ended up telling her about the dream -- she said 'Oh mum'.
"I kept saying 'Don't go on the bus trip'."
Elva was hiding on her tour bus parked near the Broad Arrow Cafe when Martin Bryant boarded and shot her dead during his murderous spree on April 28 that killed 35 people.
"I dreamt she was lying in mud, but it wasn't mud it was blood," Mrs Gaylard said.
She revealed the dream for the first time publicly as she reflected on 10 years of grief over her daughter's death.
Elva lived with her parents and Mrs Gaylard had hoped that she would grow old with her daughter as her best friend.
Mrs Gaylard's husband, Alick, who was traumatised by Elva's death, died in 2001.
"I am all on my own now," Mrs Gaylard said.
She has meticulously kept Elva's collection of 400 pot plants, watering and tending to them in a daily ritual in tribute to her daughter.
"Sometimes she seems to be right here with me and other times it seems like a long time (since she died)," Mrs Gaylard said.
"I wish she was here with me."
The pair were separated in age by 21 years and Elva, a dedicated nurse who never married, was close friends with her mother.
"We were so close -- she wasn't like a daughter," Mrs Gaylard said.
"She was so healthy, she was always smiles -- and to think she is just gone."
Her only consolation is the knowledge that Elva died while travelling.
"She died what she loved doing -- going around Australia," Mrs Gaylard said.
"She went happy. She was a marvellous daughter."
As well as tending her garden, Mrs Gaylard wears her daughter's gold chain, which was given to her by police after the massacre, in a silent tribute to her daughter.
"I'm never taking it off," she said.
Source: http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common ... 62,00.html
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