Wendy Aston’s home phone rings as we sit at her dining table.
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She does not have to pick it up to know it is her husband Jack calling from Middleton Prison in Castlemaine.
She installed the phone especially to speak to him. It gives them 12 minutes to talk, rather than the two minutes allowed to calls made to a mobile phone.
They speak about the news story on television featuring Jack’s appeal that had just played. Wendy asks if he noticed the new pink shirt she was wearing during filming that she had sewn herself.
Wendy says it is a conscious choice to keep their conversations about ‘normal’ things, despite their life now being as far from ‘normal’ as they can possibly imagine.
Jack was sentenced to five years and three months with a minimum of two-and-a-half years jail in December.
The Gold Bus driver crashed into a low clearance bridge on Montague Street in South Melbourne in February 2016 and was found guilty of six counts of negligently causing serious injury.
In coming days, his lawyers will lodge an appeal against his sentence. The 28 day cut off date to lodge the appeal was on Wednesday, but has been extended until specific documents are provided by the court.
Thousands of people have thrown their support behind the Aston family’s campaign to free Jack.
More than 6300 people have signed an online petition titled Justice for Jack and more than 1400 people have signed a second #freejackaston petition calling for changes to the criminal justice system.
Wendy and daughter Meg also collected signatures at rallies in Melbourne and Ballarat and supporters are still signing a petition at Wendy’s sister’s shop in Echuca.
Wendy says the overwhelming amount of community support helped to build Jack’s case for the appeal.
“I am getting letters from people from all over who I don’t even know,” she says.
“I got a letter the other day from a man in Melbourne and I am still getting phone calls from people who have run into the bridge, who have been a bus driver or truck driver and know what it is like to just make a mistake. Some call for personal reasons or just to share their anger at that bridge.
“Over 170 people have hit the bridge and Jack is the only one who is going to jail. It doesn’t make sense.”
There is a ‘Free Jack’ sticker sitting in front of a pot plant on the side table of the family room. Letters from supporters and newspaper clippings of stories about Jack are spread across the dining table.
It is a visual sign of how Jack’s sentence is consuming Wendy’s every thought.
“They say it could be seven to nine months that we have to wait for the court date. We have just got to switch our heads off and try to do something. But I can’t do too much. I can’t think,” she says.
“Last week was a horrible week. It really took its toll. Now that first month is over, it is one month down I suppose you can say. But it is the reality. I think it is the reality that this is life at the moment and we have just got to get used to this way of life.
“I can see the difference in Jack already. I know he is starting to worry a bit with different things around home that he would be starting to think of. He is saying about the wood in winter and this and that. He is thinking all the time about things.
“It is the little things. His neck is giving him a lot of pain from when he broke it in the accident. He had a special pillow at home. It is going to be hard.”
Jack was moved to Middleton Prison in Castlemaine two weeks ago from Port Phillip Prison west of Melbourne.
Wendy says he is trying to pick up as much work as he can and has started walking to keep busy.
They are both struggling with the ‘waiting game’; waiting to hear whether the appeal will be accepted and when it will be heard at court.
For majority of the time, they have to manage alone, unable to support each other except through visits and phone calls.
Soon they will have to struggle with more time apart, as Wendy is due for a hip replacement in about six weeks time.
She says the family dog flake is missing Jack too. She puts the phone to his ear to hear Jack’s voice.
But for now, despite the uncertainty, Jack’s boots still sit beside the front door of the family home, waiting for him to come home.
Gold Bus Ballarat continues to support the Aston family by covering all court costs.