Christchurch, Sure to Rise from the rubble

My earthquake tea towel. Ironically, the much loved Edmonds Sure to Rise building (which I passed by on the bus to school every day and which was demolished by developers in the '90s) is unlikely to rise again, but I am hopeful that Christchurch can transform itself into a new beast from the rubble of the old.

This is a slightly selfish tea towel. I'm not donating the profits to the Red Cross, the Mayor's Fund or any other charity. The proceeds from these go into saving something of mine destroyed by the earthquake.

You see, last March, St Patricks Day to be exact, my husband and I bought a splendid 1930s brick convent and chapel in Lyttelton. We sold all we had to buy it  - because how many chances do you get to own something like that?

It was, still is, stupidly huge - 16 bedrooms, 3 staircases, 2 sacristies, and a holy water font in the priest's loo. There were cloisters and a refectory and a grotto and an ambulatory (which I'd never even heard of before). In short it was 1500 square metres of pure indulgent ridiculousness.

Our 5 year old son had a room that was just for clocks (he was more-than-slightly obsessed with them for a while there); my husband found a beautiful if woefully out of tune 1880s Bechstein grand piano (an online auction bargain) that fitted perfectly into the bay window of the library; I finally had a home for my 6-foot pair of scissors and my life size fibreglass donkey.

The chapel had been painted yellow, blue and pink - raw colours that fought against the beautiful Gothic stained glass windows with their crowns of thorns and bleeding hearts and words of Latin. Our first few months there were spent getting the chapel replastered and repainted, ripping up the nylon carpet to polish the floorboards underneath, and most importantly getting the windows repaired and protected.

By 11pm on Friday 3 September I had finally finished and furnished the chapel, bar the final clean which I was saving until morning.  The first earthquake struck in the early hours of September 4, cracking the chapel walls and covering the floor in plaster (at least I hadn't vacuumed already) but everything was still standing.

After the February 22 earthquake however, all was lost - the end wall of the chapel collapsed completely, and the rest of the convent, which had suffered only cosmetic damage first time round, cracked up and will have to be demolished. The cheapest option, and one which my insurance company was counting on, is a bulldozer straight through it all, smashing everything of interest and historical importance.

I love the old buildings of Christchurch tremendously. It would be comforting to think that architectural features and materials can be salvaged and re-used to give soul and a sense of history to the new Christchurch.

I can't save the old Girls' High buildings or the licorice allsort apartments but I can try to save the stained glass windows of the old Sisters of Mercy Convent in Lyttelton, one tea towel at a time.