When a tragic event strikes, it is normal for it to appear nigh on impossible for something bright to appear again in your life.
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That’s a regular part of our everyday existence.
First there is the shock of the calamity that has visited upon your family.
Everything becomes focused on dealing with that alone, with hoping that somehow your loved one survives and can eventually resume some kind of normal life.
When the event results in that person’s death, you then have the grief process to work your way through.
This is the story of life and one that everyone shares at various times across the years.
It’s not easy but people do find a way to cope and to then move forward.
Often people can eventually reach a point where they can use their experience to create some good, even it’s just a reinforcement of the values that make life so precious and appreciated.
Several months ago the Parker family went through just such an experience.
They suffered the shock, lived in hope and then underwent the grief, but out of that they have found a way to turn that experience into a positive.
It all started when widely respected Border stock agent Trevor Parker suffered a terrible accident on his Chiltern property.
Mr Parker received burns to almost 70 per cent of his body when fuel ignited as he was filling a generator.
Therein followed 49 days of treatment in The Alfred hospital’s specialist burns treatment unit before Mr Parker lost his battle and died. But out of that tragedy has come a new way forward for the Parker family.
They are so appreciative of everything the burns unit did that they have decided to raise money for the facility.
As Ken Parker says, the unit was such that they “couldn’t do any more” given the quality care they gave to his brother and the support provided for his family.
It is a courageous step for the Parker family to do what they are doing given it is only a matter of months since their loved one died.
But it would be hard to think of a more fitting tribute.
The Parker family should be congratulated on taking this path.
It is no surprise that it is something that has already garnered considerable support across the Border region.
