Ōtautahi / Christchurch Daily Photo

I was looking at the damage wrecked on a house in Peterborough street (it’s so bad it is behind a wire barricade), when something on the ground caught my attention. I was quite stunned to find a picture of the Virgin Mary in a broken photo frame right by the barricade.

A statue of the Virgin Mary that was in the Catholic Cathedral was spun 180 degrees around during the February earthquake so that instead of having her back to the window she was facing it. The catholic school girl in me was moved by that imagery – with her out stretched arms she looks like she is protecting the city in front of her. The statue was recently removed from the Cathedral to be repaired.