THE one thing magic can’t do is bring back the ones we love.

But, like a sleight of hand, for a moment the pain is gone.

And what place, especially for a child, holds more magic than Disneyland?

As far as the Feel the Magic Foundation is concerned, there’s nowhere else on Earth that even comes close.

“That grief never goes away,” Tara Watson says.

“Children might learn to deal with it, or people might progress with their lives, but that someone they’ve lost is always there and they will always feel sad about them.

“What we’re trying to do is help people understand that it’s OK — it’s OK to have that beautiful trip to Disneyland in honour of that person and create new memories despite them not being there.”

Tara grew up at Yackandandah and Wodonga and went to high school at Catholic College.

Now a psychologist who works with children, she recently became a director of the foundation whose aim is to brighten the lives of kids who have lost someone they love.

Never one to shy from a challenge, Tara met the founder of Feel the Magic, Sydney’s James Thomas, while hiking the Kokoda Track.

“I’d also climbed Mt Kilimanjaro, I just seem to like those challenges,” Tara says.

“James and I went as part of a group organised by Sebastian Perry who set up 100 Things.”

On Perry’s own list of things to do before you die is everything from joining a protest to marrying a stranger in Vegas.

“Kokoda was pretty hard,” Tara says.

“We did it in six days so it was pretty strenuous, and it was humid, which my body doesn’t generally agree with.

“But it was fantastic, just one of those once-in-a-lifetime things you have to do.”

And it just happened to be one of those life-changing events, bringing about a chance encounter that has helped Tara change lives.

“James was telling the group a bit about his foundation,” she says.

“And I had an interest because I work with kids so I started grilling him, asking him a million questions.

“I really liked the sound of the foundation and we kept in touch.

“Then last year I went to the foundation’s fund-raising ball to support James, and in January he called to ask me to become a director.”

The not-for-profit foundation has been created to lift the spirits of children who have lost a parent or even a sibling.

It began life with the aim of sending children to “the happiest place on Earth”, but has grown to encompass grief counselling and helping parents.

“It’s all about working with grieving kids,” Tara says.

“But it’s also about the family, not just the child, though it still has that child focus.

“Some of our future plans are around having regular meetings that adults can attend so they can support each other. They can share stories but we also want to make it functional with guest speakers, to help families who have lost a parent with financial planning and all the things that happen when they lose someone.”

The Byrnes were the second family to benefit from the foundation’s trips to Disneyland.

The foundation paid for the four brothers, who had lost their mum a couple of years before, and their grandma.

The boys’ grandpa, foster mum and foster sister also made the trip.

“It was a cast of thousands but it was amazing,” Tara says.

“The boys have been split up, two with their grandparents and two with a foster family, so there was just all the excitement of seeing each other at the airport.

“There was excitement because they’d never gone on a holiday together and they were all under eight years old at the time.

“There was the excitement of the plane and all the questions that all the kids ask — so we had a very busy time.

“It was probably more emotional for the grandparents.

“The oldest boy probably had an OK memory of his mum, but the youngest didn’t. 

“The grandparents were just pleased they could have that opportunity and knew they couldn’t take the four boys on a holiday like that.

“It was a chance to connect and make new and happy memories. It’s important to realise they can do that even though there’s a person missing, and grandma was so pleased they could do that.”

Tara says she “definitely” felt a part of the family’s experience.

“Especially with four boys, making sure they didn’t disappear and wander off the role was very hands-on,” she says.

“I call them my Disney family — and it’s been a really fantastic experience.”

But even as adults, grief can knock us off our feet.

James Thomas was 25 when he lost his dad after a two-year battle with cancer.

“It made me think I’m going to mature, I’m going to become a man and look after mum and move her down to live with me and my family,” James says.

The goal was to buy a big, dream house that could accommodate everyone.

“I started a signwriting business and lost touch of the things that are important in life,” James says.

“I was driven by material things, money and financial security, it was no life really. 

“But we finally bought the dream house and the day came we were moving in, which was also my 31st birthday, and Mum dropped dead of a brain aneurysm.

“It was completely unexpected and as an adult put me on my arse. Being an only child I just felt alone; I’d never felt pain like that in my life.”

For James the next 18 months, he says, were the darkest times of his life.

But that’s when he decided to sell his business and he and wife Kristy travelled for a month and a half around the US.

Disneyland was just one stop on that adventure.

“I didn’t even really want to go,” James says.

“But immediately I knew it was something special, and all these memories I’d forgotten about came flooding back.

“The movies I’d grown up with, the stories mum would tell, the drawings we did together.

“I had an epiphany and I felt free for the first time in my life, I remember thinking I need to tell mates who have children, they have to do this.”

And that’s when James started thinking about children who have lost one or both parents.

“Kids who feel the same pain I felt,” he says.

“But with Disneyland I felt reunited with my family after a year-and-a-half of grief — it’s an amazing place to reconnect, to have fun and make new memories.”

But James says it’s more than just Disneyland.

To help with the healing and the grief more needs to be put in place for children and their families.

His inspiration has come from arriving home this week from being a buddy at a bereavement camp in the US.

“Disneyland is a Band-aid solution,” he says.

“It provides beautiful memories but there needs to be more support, so I want to implement what they did in the bereavement camp here in Australia and it will be the first of its kind.”

James says it will give kids a voice and provide a safe place to express their grief with no judgment and among other children who understand.

“I was buddied with a boy who’d lost his dad from a gunshot wound in gang-related violence,” James says.

“But he felt safe to express his story because there was another kid in a similar situation.

“To have that takes away feeling weird, the feeling of being different and teaches them resilience.”

Tonight is the Feel the Magic Foundation Ball in Sydney, its main fund-raiser, and a chance to send another family to Disneyland.

“Grief is a different kind of monster,” James says.

“It’s a team sport, you can’t handle grief on your own. And if we can shine a little light on a grieving family’s life just for that week then it’s worth it.”

There’s no doubt magic can be real.

For information visit feelthemagic.org.au.