OPEN LETTER FROM A PIONEER DIVERS WIDOW, JOYCE BRUSHNEEN, TO THE NORWEGIAN PEOPLE
In May of 1971 Michael Brushneen was killed while diving from the Ocean Viking for Comex in the Norwegian Sector.
The following is an open letter from Joyce Brushneen, his widow.
22nd February 2009
United Kingdom
From Mrs Joyce Brushneen the widow of one of Norway’s Pioneer Divers Michael George Brushneen.
This is a short story of a British family who lived in Stavanger Norway between 1967 and 1971. My husband Michael George Brushneen was a specialist diver working to get the Norwegian Oil Industry up and running.
Two of my three children were born in Stavanger, indeed my youngest daughter is named after the Lyse fjord, and we had a good life and made many friends with our Norwegian neighbours and I am still in touch with many of those friends to this date.
Our stay in Norway came to an abrupt end on the 3rd of May 1971 when my husband was asked at the last minute to do an extra dive which was required on the Christmas Tree, which is a well head, and he had the specialist knowledge required for the dive. Lyse our daughter was just 17 days old and our other two children were both under 6 years old, when I got the visit to tell me that Michael had been killed on that dive.
Within the week I and my three children were sent back to the UK to fend for ourselves. When your husband is killed it is unlike him loosing his job, which is bad enough, but he can no longer fend for his family by either gaining another job, or re- training for a change of employment, his ability to earn stopped, never to be able to earn again to keep his family together.
Once back in the UK it soon became clear that I could not afford to keep the house we were buying, and as I had three very young children my options were very limited, and it was a struggle for many years.
I am now in my 70th year and it has now come to my attention that I should have been entitled to compensation for Michaels death, and over all these years myself and my children should have been receiving a pension from Norway, but no one made any attempt to find me. I am now receiving some very grateful help from The Pioneer Divers, and the Norwegian press, who are fighting the Norwegian system for justice for me, and my family along with many others in a similar position.
I would like to thank the Norwegian people for their support; having lived among them for many years, I would expect nothing less of them.
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