From orphan to police recruit

Police officer Jim Sara and his wife, Christine, died in a car crash 19 years ago. But, had the father of two survived, he and his eldest daughter, Amy, might now be in the police force together.

Over the next two months, he could have helped her get through the final exams she has to pass to graduate from Fort Largs on March 23. And, as time went by, he might have suggested what line of police work most suited her character; which posts she should apply for; or how she could best win a promotion.

Sadly, 22-year-old Amy – orphaned at the age of three, along with her then one-year-old sister, Karma – can hear none of her father’s career advice now. His sudden death robbed him of time to leave his daughters either a profound, life-guiding message, or simply his wishes for their futures.

Not even of her mother can Amy ask: “How would Dad have felt about me joining him on the thin blue line?”

Although she expects to make it to her graduation without him, she says being in the job with her father would have been “pretty cool”.

“He might have given me a bit of a hard time,” she says with a laugh. “ ‘Make sure you do that right’, he might have said of a certain task.”

The Saras died after their car collided with another at a main-street intersection at Port Broughton in January 1986. Aged only in their mid-20s, they had driven back from an Adelaide cricket match to collect their daughters.

Christine’s sister and brother-in-law, Judy and Harold Grivell – who lived at Verdun – became the orphaned girls’ guardians.

Amy told the Police Journal last April of her long-held desire to become a police officer. She was then working part-time in a video store and as a volunteer at the Holdfast Community Centre, and had applied to join SAPOL two months earlier.

She said her inspiration to serve came partly from her father’s life in the job, and partly from the reward she finds in helping people. So, when SAPOL Recruiting called to offer her a place in a cadet course scheduled to begin in late August, life became temporarily euphoric.

“I couldn’t really believe it, because it was something I’d wanted to do for so long,” she says. “To finally know that I was going there (Fort Largs) was amazing.

“I just wanted to tell everyone, but the first person I told was my mum (Judy). She was pretty proud.

“I’d already booked a trip to Malaysia for 10 days, so I went and had a fantastic holiday because I knew when I got back I was starting (my new job).”

On August 31, Amy drove nervously into Fort Largs to join those with whom she would tackle 26 weeks of intense training. Now, after months of study as a member of Course 59, she can attest to the rigorousness of academy life, which she never expected to be easy.

“There’s a lot to learn over six months,” says Amy, now serving a term as course captain. “So, it’s hard, but not impossible.

“Managing your time is really hard. If you can do that, it’s fine. And, if you do the work, there’s no reason why you can’t get through.”

All of Amy’s course-mates know of her background, including the deaths of her parents and her father’s time in the job. They heard the details among the self-introduction talks all of them had to give in class in their first days at Fort Largs.

Few have ever asked Amy to elaborate on that most tragic part of her history. But it seemed that, on Police Remembrance Day last September, one of her female course-mates had remembered the details of her talk.

“She said: ‘This must be a hard day for you?’ ” says Amy. “I said: ‘Well, I’ve never been to a Police Remembrance Day ceremony before, but it’s definitely made me think of Dad’.”

But few days pass without Amy thinking of both of her parents, anyway. As she walks around the grounds of Fort Largs, she knows she is following not only figuratively but also literally in her late father’s footsteps.

“I do think of things that he would have done that I’m doing now,” she says. “I guess there is a little bit of sentimentality to me carrying on from him.”

Indeed, Amy believes her few months in the job have, in a sense, brought her closer to her father.

She has not yet considered the type of police work she wants to pursue, but hopes to gain experience in many fields. And, as she does that, she intends to measure up to what might have been her father’s expectations of her. “

Everything I’ve done so far in my life, I’ve done in a way that I’d want him to be proud of,” she says. “So, being in the job will be no different.”

• Related article: What could have been (Police Journal, April 2004).

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