Dear Craig,
It has been 3 years since you left us and the years get harder they don’t get easier, we will come together as a family to remember the times we had the bad and the great.
You would be so proud of your daughter, she has grown into a beautiful woman and is always talking about different times you had together with such love.
Lachy and Nikayla are always talking about times in Halls head the pool the laughter and the fun they had with you .
Both Dad and me wish so much you were here with us again, we miss you so much .
Mum and Dad

Your smile so big and bright.
The sound of your laugh.
The hugs you gave so tight.
Your comfortable scent.
And the taste of sweet mint.

A few things about you, that I could never forget!

I love you Ryan, always!

3 years this week since we lost you. We will gather as a family spending special time together to remember and grieve. Every event / celebration we take a family selfie as we normally would but now the years go past and there is no more with you in it. The ones with you seem old now and i find that one of the most confronting things that kicks us in the guts is that there will never be another one with you so we maintain the last one on the photo display cupboard ageing with time and feeling more distant as the celebrations happen each year. The loss is so deep through our family but we treasure our time together remembering the crazy stuff you used to do. You are loved and you are so missed. PS Collingwood is 11 and St Kilda is 12 on the ladder I’m sure dad will pick the winner again this year. xxxxx

Nathan was so much more than the circumstances that took him from us.

He was an amazing father, a loyal friend, and the husband-to-be I was so excited to spend my future with. He loved deeply, laughed often, and had a way of making people smile no matter what they were going through. He never missed an opportunity to crack a joke, flash one of his signature winks, or bring a little light into someone’s day.

On this Overdose Awareness tribute, I remember Nathan not for how he died, but for how he lived. I remember his smile, his humor, his kindness, and the love he gave so freely to those around him. His life mattered. His story matters.

Nathan’s passing is a heartbreaking reminder that substance use disorder does not discriminate. It affects people who are loved beyond measure, people with dreams, families, and futures. Behind every overdose statistic is a person, and behind Nathan’s name is a life that touched countless others.

Today, I honor his memory by sharing his story, spreading awareness, and fighting for compassion over judgment. He will always be loved, always be missed, and never be forgotten.

Forever loved. Forever remembered. Forever missed. 💜

Heaven,

I met you when I first started working in the homelessness sector. I was young and didn’t really know what I was doing, but I knew I wanted to help. In the beginning I felt like I wasn’t helping at all, until you told me that simply showing up with my smile and kindness made a world of difference to those who have known or know nothing but indifference and judgement from the people who were supposed to be there to help them. Seeing you always made me smile. No matter how rough of shape you were in, you always took the time to ask me how I was doing. I cared about you, but I know you cared about me. We would crack jokes, you would laugh and smile. You had a smile and a laugh that one can only describe as infectious. It was hard to have a bad day when you were around.

Working in the sector, you are not supposed to have favourites, but I would be lying if I said there wasn’t a special place in my heart for you. I miss you so much and I wish I could have done more to help you.

I remember the day I found out that you had passed due to an overdose. I read it on Facebook two weeks after the fact. I wish I had known about your funeral. I couldn’t help but ruminate – wondering if you knew that you’d be missed, whether you felt alone when you died, how long it took to find your body. The answers to these questions I will never know. But I do know that you didn’t deserve the life you had. You didn’t deserve to die the way you did. You deserved the same love and kindness that you showed to everyone else. You deserved so much more and so much better, and I am sorry.

I hope you know that even though I left the sector before you passed, that I never stopped thinking about you. On particularly cold nights, I would ask my Granny who had passed to watch over everyone, while taking the time to pray for you specifically, so that everyone would be ok and that one day everyone would know the warmth of a place to call home.

While I was in the “helper” position, I still learned so much from you. You helped me. You taught me so much about resilience, kindness, compassion, and laughter.

I still think about you all these years later. What I would give to be sitting with you in the common room eating the now soggy food from the community kitchen because it had been sitting in the styrofoam container for too long, having a good laugh. I hope that where ever you are in this universe that you now know and feel the same love you gave to so many others, that wasn’t given to you in your final years.

I miss you so much.

With all my love,
Misty

To John “Westy”

My brother from another mother.

Oh brother we go deeper than the ink beneath the skin of our tattoos
Though we don’t share the same blood
You’re my brother and I love you that’s the truth.

Heaven has definitely gotten a lot louder.

Hope you’re causing absolute carnage up there and doing everyone’s box in like you did in life. I wouldn’t have changed a single thing about you for the world. You really were one of a kind. Our lovable rogue.

But you also loved so freely and so hard and you’re one of the only people I never pushed away when it came to a hug, maybe in some way it was the universe’s way our telling us our time was limited.

Forever loved.
Forever missed.
Forever 33.

Your wee sis