Come have a beer with me
I was standing in the middle of the main street, staring up at the tops of the buildings.
Locals passed by, giving me strange looks.
What I was doing was trying to picture an ocean of water on the very spot where I was standing … because that’s what happened in Lismore in February.
“We were expecting water to reach 1.3 metres”, said Sarah, the owner of the 40-year-old Lismore Book Warehouse, when I met her. “That was the highest the floods had ever reached before.”
This time, the water reached a peak of … 14.3 metres in her store!
That day Sarah lost $215,000 worth of books, none of which were insured.
The next day she got in her boat and started searching for and rescuing people in her community.
“We’re not a rich area, but we stick together”, she says.
Sarah used Google Maps to get around, yet the roads she normally drove on were now as much as 5 metres below her, underwater. “Cows were coming past us with their heads bobbing up and down as they were swept downstream to their deaths.”
It was total, utter devastation.
“You know, at the time, I didn’t know whether Lismore would make it through”, Sarah told me.
And when the water eventually subsided the true scale of the destruction – and the rotting stench – became clear. The place looked and smelled like a rubbish tip for months.
The Lismore library had lost 30,000 books, and has never reopened.
“I knew that Lismore needed a bookshop”, she said.
And so, with the determination of a small business owner with her back to the wall, Sarah and her loyal team spent the next four-and-a-half months slogging away putting the family-owned bookstore back together.
“I’m just really proud we’re here today”, says Sarah.
So when my publishers were drawing up plans for the official launch of my new bestselling book, Barefoot Kids, they asked whether I wanted it to be held in Sydney or Melbourne.
“Neither”, I said. “I want it in Lismore.”
Yes, I’m really proud to say that I will be hosting my official book launch at the Lismore Book Warehouse this Thursday night (Sold out!).
Tread Your Own Path!
P.S. Straight after the book launch at 7 pm, I’ll be heading over to a local pub (Hotel Metropole) to host a “Beer With Barefoot”, with a serious purpose. If you are a local and are struggling financially, please come along and let me (and a few of my financial counsellor mates) help you sort things out. It’s totally free. It’s totally independent. It’s totally confidential. And I’ll totally shout you a beer.