Being out on the water certainly nourishes my soul.
I guess it's what Dad taught me, that life is more than money.
And I'm fortunate that I can work part-time so that I can have this balance of being able
to do what I am so passionate about.
And I just love the thrill of chasing fish, I love it.
It gives me my escape.
My dad, when he married my mum, obviously married the lady of his dreams but he got
a best friend in my grandfather as well.
My mum's dad taught him fishing and the love of fishing.
Dad taught us to fish.
I think all children want to please their parents.
And I feel it now.
I feel it when I'm out on that boat and I'm doing what I love.
I feel that pride that I know Dad has.
The day that we found out Dad had died, my brother and sister and I were at home.
This particular day I didn't know that Dad had gone out but he had gone scuba diving
and about two o'clock I guess in the afternoon there was a knock on the door and I opened
the door and I remember seeing granddad's face and he was gutted and he said, it was
a policeman with him.
And he said, kids you need to go into the lounge room so we sat there and I don't think
any of us knew and he said, I have something to tell you, it's about your dad.
And then he broke down, he couldn't say.
And the policeman said, you know, we're sorry to tell you but your dad has died in a scuba
diving accident.
Everything went black for me and I ran.
I just ran out the house and I got to the front curb and just crumpled down.
And my granddad came around my back and just hugged me.
It still stings obviously, it still feels like it was yesterday.
And then that night we all just cried.
We cried for a long time.
Dad worked on insurance for many years and he understood the value of protecting his
family and he did that by getting life insurance and thank God he did.
What it meant was that we could get on with the process of grief.
It gave us the choices to deal with the grief in the way that we wanted to deal with it.
It goes to show the kind of man he was.
I'm sure he had no plans that he was going to die but he certainly had enough vision
to know that protecting us was critical, absolutely.
Sometimes it is the one place I feel the closest to dad.
There are times that still whore and there are times that that can still hurt but I don't
not do it for that reason.
Sometimes I just need to do it to feel that.
I think dad's death taught us that it's so important to keep things balanced.
That life sometimes can seem overwhelming but when you go back to what it's all about
it really doesn't have to be and shouldn't be.
When I'm out on the water and those days where it's been a hard week and I've been
at work and it just feels a little bit overwhelming and you get out on that water and then you
suddenly go you know what it just doesn't matter.
That was one of the legacy things that he left.
For me to learn at a very young age what's important and what's not and it gave me a
direction and you know the choices that I make to work part time it has allowed me to
do what I love to do and it gives me time to really recalibrate life when I need to.
