Her son had planned to stay overnight at his friend's house. Hours later,the friend and his sister were killed in the inferno that swept through Kinglake.
"If it hadn't have been for Steve saying he wanted his family at home,I wouldn't have picked[my son] up at 5 o'clock,"Viv recalls,her voice cracking."And I was coming through when those fires were coming up over those hills and I didn't even know if I was going to make it to Flowerdale,that's how close the fires were."
Tears run down her face."And I think to this day:Why was I the lucky one? Why am I so fortunate that I've still got my son,you know,and they lost their son and their daughter.
"And I had a lot of guilt,like,how can I have my son and they don't have their son,you know. I couldn't even talk to the dad for a while,you know,because I was just ... I felt so guilty. Anyway. Yeah. It took him a bit for my son to get over that."
The Black Saturday bushfires,which robbed 173 people of their lives (another seven later succumbed to their injuries),are believed to represent the largest loss of life from bushfire in Australian history.
Around 450,000 hectares were razed and 3500 buildings were destroyed.
In Flowerdale,the community is broadly divided between those who don't want anything to do with this week's 10-year anniversary commemorations,and those who need to have their stories heard.
The Phelans don't know which side they're on. They're on both sides. They're trying to move on,but it's hard to forget.
By late afternoon on February 7,2009,the power had gone out in Flowerdale and Steve's stress levels were going through the roof. The hills along the valley were glowing orange and the town's CFA unit had been sent off to fight other fires.
Once Viv and his son had made it back,Steve and seven other men decided their wives and kids had to leave. They would stay and defend the pub.
It would be days before some of the women,who packed up and drove to nearby Yea in a convoy,knew whether their men and homes had survived. Steve and Viv's daughter was caught in Whittlesea,not knowing whether her family was alive or dead.
The Phelans and many other families would lose everything. Their homes. Photographs. Pets. The kids'birth certificates.
Back at the pub,locals grabbed tubs,wheelie bins,containers and anything else that would hold water,filled them,and placed them around the perimeter. They set up sprinklers,including over the cars parked in a row outside. They used wet mops and towels to put out spot fires as they flared up. And they waited.
Those inside the pub counted themselves lucky the fires came through at night. Spot fires and embers were easily visible in the clear night air.
More people turned up to shelter in the front bar,and help defend the building. Adrenaline,fear and determination carried them through.
A neighbour pulled up with a badly injured 83-year-old man,Robert Harrop. Mr Harrop,known universally as Bob,had succumbed to smoke inhalation and burns,defending his property from the roaring fires.
In the front bar,locals cared for Bob as best they could. They stayed with him,held his hand and comforted him. But Bob died from his injuries,surrounded by his community.
Every year his widow brings a bunch of flowers to the pub.
Ten years on,the trauma is still fresh for Steve and Viv. Recovery has been rough.
"Steve's never ever actually sat down and talked to me about it,"Viv says. She laughs."Have you?"
Steve says he finds it easier to keep moving:"That's the way I deal with it."
In the aftermath of that day and night of drama,everything was a slog. News slowly sunk in that in Flowerdale and neighbouring Hazeldene 12 people had died. It took authorities two days to reach the town.
The army moved in to search ruined properties for bodies. Dozens slept in the pub for days. Some were there more than a week. The carpet was ruined with soot and mud,and soiled by dogs. The town's water was contaminated. The pub ran out of beer. Spotfires were being put out for weeks afterwards.
The Phelans kept working,day and night,not knowing what else to do.
Carlton United Breweries delivered supplies to several pubs in bushfire-affected towns,and later waived the bill. Some locals were bitter that the pub charged for beer it got for free. But Steve and Viv point out they had huge bills to pay,both personal and business.
"At the end of the day,we did the right thing by the community,I think,"says Viv."Didn't we."Steve nods.
"We did,"she goes on."Despite ... There were some nasty things being said,considering we lost our own home and all our photos,we had to battle on and keep going here and keep supporting the community."
Taking just two holidays in the 10 years since the disaster,they rebuilt their home,repaired the pub and try to look forward. And they want it known that Flowerdale is recovering."It's 80 per cent there,"Steve says.
New buildings are everywhere you look. The tennis club has dozens of members and young families are moving into the area,buoyed by affordable housing.
Real heroes
In the aftermath of Black Saturday,the word"hero"was tossed around like confetti as hungry media singled out ordinary people who performed extraordinary acts.
Those in the Flowerdale Hotel who worked to save the community building – and their neighbour,Bob – deserve that mantle.
As does David Key.
A retired Victoria Police air wing sergeant,Key was working as a rescue crewman on Black Saturday,with pilot Warrick Young and winch operator Bryan Norman.
The trio was flying over the blaze when a Channel 9 radio operator came over the airwaves,telling them four people were in trouble on Coombs Road,Kinglake West.
When the crew arrived,they could see four people,three horses and a Kelpie-cross named Poncho stranded in the driveway of a house,surrounded on three sides by a firestorm metres from trees ringing the home.
"As we were flying around,we could just see the houses exploding,"Key says.
He thought he might have time to rescue one or two adults,before the fire reached them.
As he was winched down from the helicopter,a woman ran towards him,her dog hot on her heels. First Key got the woman,Juliet Moore,into the harness and then he shoved the dog between their bodies,holding its paws tight. Somehow,Poncho jumped out. Juliet went after her dog.
Then Key realised the cable connecting him to the helicopter was going slack. The fire,which was sucking the oxygen from the air,was bringing the helicopter down.
Key and Norman — metres above ground in the helicopter —made eye contact and without words they agreed:Key would have to be disconnected from the aircraft or the whole thing,with two crew on board,would come down.
"So I thought,right,this is sort of a bad day in the office,"Key said."They[the people on the ground] were looking at me,basically like,'What are we going to do now?'"
From the air,Norman and Young could see one way out,but it would need to be taken fast.
The group on the ground,led by Key,jumped into the vehicles parked in the driveway and made for a fire track on the right-hand side of the property.
The first car in the convoy was a sedan. Sitting in the passenger seat,a woman held one of the horses,by its reins,through the passenger window. Next came a Nissan Patrol,towing the other horses in a float. Bringing up the rear were Key and another man.
"They turned right,and I looked left up Coombs Road and it had disappeared;it was just a ball of flames,"Key says.
The convoy could only go as fast as the horse trotting alongside the first car. It didn't feel fast enough.
"I was talking to the crew in the helicopter,and they were just saying,'If you can go a bit faster,that would be good',"Key recalls,drily.
When they reached the relative safety of a paddock,people,horses and Poncho were joined by"Noah's ark",a menagerie of deer,kangaroos,wombats and echidnas.
And then Key jumped back into the helicopter,and"went back to the office".
By a twist of fate,the wind turned after the air wing's dramatic rescue,and Moore's house narrowly escaped destruction. But days later,she contacted Key to thank him for his role in getting her and her friends out of harm's way. The pair have kept in touch over the years.
In 2016,the Air Wing crew was given a group citation for bravery,for rescuing the four people in dangerous circumstances and at great personal risk to Key. Eleven of Moore's neighbours on Coombs Road perished that day.
Key says the risks are just part of the job.
"You're concentrating on the task[and] you're just trained to respond to different situations. It's just a second nature. You can't let the situation overwhelm you."