Photography: Tracey Lee Hayes Photography.
Suffering horrific third-degree burns to the majority of her body after surviving the Whakaari/White Island eruption in 2019, Stephanie Browitt found it hard to imagine she would ever lead a “normal” life again.
“Mum was always telling me to believe in myself,” Steph, 29, tells Woman’s Day.
“And to keep fighting for Krystal and Dad. I always wanted to make her proud.”
Steph suffered 70% burns after escaping the eruption that claimed the lives of 22 people, including Steph’s father Paul, 55, and sister Krystal, 21. But with her biggest supporter, her mum Marie, by her side, Steph began her gruelling journey towards rehabilitation.
“Mum would always remind me that giving up was not an option,” Steph says from her home in Melbourne.
“And I never wanted to let her down.”
A cruise stop that changed everything
At the time of the tragedy on 9 December 2019, the Browitts were on a Royal Caribbean cruise to New Zealand on the Ovation Of The Seas. While docked in Tauranga, Steph, Krystal and Paul signed up for a tour to Whakaari, while Marie remained on the ship as she suffers from multiple sclerosis.
“I didn’t realise how far away the island was from the shore,” says Steph, who was a 23-year-old arts graduate and aspiring actress at the time.
“It was lifeless and eerie.”
What they claim they didn’t know
Though there was a Level 2 volcanic alert for Whakaari at the time – Level 3 is the first level of eruption – Steph says Royal Caribbean did not inform them of this alert or any possible danger. As they explored, the group noticed black smoke rising from the crater.
It was a volcanic eruption called a pyroclastic flow – a scalding surge of hot rock fragments, hot gases and air that moves in a ground-hugging cloud.
A split second that changed everything
“I heard the word ‘run’, then my dad started repeating it and we just ran,” she remembers.
It was a race for their lives. The flow hit them “like a tidal wave of rocks” and knocked Steph off her feet.
“It was like the full-on force of a truck,” she recalls.
The moment their world shattered
Hero commercial helicopter pilots on the mainland flew to the island to help. Steph, Paul and Krystal were taken to nearby Whakatāne Hospital, where Krystal was declared dead. Afterwards, Paul and Steph were flown to Melbourne’s Alfred Hospital, where Steph was told she’d lost her little sister.
“That broke me,” she says.
“Because I was thinking, ‘Yes, we’re injured, but we’re all OK. We’re all here.’”
Losing Paul
Four weeks later, Paul, a senior tax investigator, lost his fight for life.
“I went into shock,” Steph tells.
“It made an already horrific time much more horrific to go through. With my injuries, I couldn’t even hug my mum.”
From then on, Marie’s focus turned to helping her daughter.
“Every single day, she came,” Steph says.
“She was there for all of my surgeries and therapies.”
A home forever changed
Steph had eight fingers amputated, underwent multiple operations and skin grafts, and had to learn to walk again. In her new memoir Out Of The Ashes, co-written with Marie and journalist Sue Smethurst, Steph reveals how her mum’s devotion steered her though her darkest days.
After three months, Steph returned to the family home to find her mum had been sleeping on the sofa, too heartbroken to use the marital bed. On that first night back, Marie slept in Steph’s bed with her.
She shares, “We hugged and sobbed until we virtually cried ourselves to sleep.”
Caring for Steph
Marie took on the role of Steph’s full-time carer, dressing her in compression garments and silicone masks to limit scarring, administering moisturising dressings and helping with her physical therapy. While overjoyed that her daughter was home, Marie was filled with trepidation.
“I was also utterly terrified about how I’d cope with looking after her,” she admits.
A remarkable recovery
But Marie did a stellar job and today Steph is thriving. She no longer needs to wear a face mask, can drive her own car and works as a motivational speaker. Mum and daughter – who reached an out-of-court settlement with Royal Caribbean – “are closer than ever”, Steph says. The first phase of the coronial inquiry into the tragedy took place last year in Auckland and the second is set to begin at some point this year.
Marie hopes that one day Steph can start a family of her own. Not that she’s in any hurry.
Ready to embrace what’s next
“I need to get out there,” laughs Steph.
“One step at a time.”
Meanwhile, she hopes her memoir can help others facing their own challenges.
“We also wrote the book because we wanted to honour my dad and my sister, and keep their memory alive,” smiles Steph.
“I hope we’ve made them proud.”
Out Of The Ashes by Stephanie and Marie Browitt is available at HarperCollins.
