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BEFORE Moyhu teenager Gabby Larkin died from cancer, she told her parents “I’m going to miss you guys”.
But she probably did not know how deeply her death would be felt by her parents, Patrice and Phil.
In the weeks after the aggressive disease claimed the 16-year-old, Patrice Larkin tried to put words to her sorrow.
Every week when she visited Gabby’s grave, she would compose one verse of a song.
“I tried to watch over you, to keep you from all harm,” she wrote.
“My hand stretched out to hold you, to wrap you in my arms.
“But the angels up above, on wings placed you upon.
“In your last breath of life, you smiled and you were gone.”
Gabby died on June 4, 2009.
It was only three months after she was diagnosed with the rare and aggressive cancer.
Doctors found a tumour the size of a grapefruit on her ovaries.
It had grown to that size in just three weeks.
Two bouts of chemotherapy only seemed to feed the disease, which spread rapidly.
One doctor said it was the most aggressive cancer he had seen.
Mrs Larkin said Gabby’s third dose of chemotherapy was abandoned when her doctors realised it could do no good.
“They came into the room and said there’s no point,” she said.
“The song was based on that moment, she sat at the window and we could see she was thinking.
“It was like she was being strong for us.”
Gabby died about a month later, and her mother turned to her piano for the first time in 20 years, trying to fill the emptiness.
She never intended for her songs to be any more than her own therapy.
But Phil showed the first of her eight songs to Jack Howard, of Hunters and Collectors fame, who agreed to record it.
The song has vocals by country crooner Rebecca Barnard.
Mrs Larkin plays the CD the first thing in the morning, and before she goes to bed at night.
She said it was nice to know there was a tribute to her daughter and hopes it will help others who have lost their children.
The single and video are available at Dislocation Music Shop at Wangaratta, the Moyhu shop or online at Silver Bullet Records.
