For a lot of people who know me, many of you don't know what I've been though and had to live with. Even though it was in the papers, on the news etc there are still people out there who aren't aware of my story.
Today i'm going to share it with you all as I feel it's the right thing to do.
 |
| Beanca's 1st Birthday |
My mum and brother flew up to Queensland which is where she'd taken the kids and brought Chris back home with them.
Their mother was hog tying them at night so they wouldn't get up and bother her. The night that Beanca died, she had been tied up for 16 hours and during this time she'd rolled over and suffocated in her bed.
Mother and boyfriend were sentenced to 6 years for manslaughter and she was out in 3. Free to live her life as if nothing had happened.
I don't believe 6 years was a fair sentence at all. 10 years have passed and my family are still trying to put our lives back together.
 |
| Chris - Back in Melbourne with us |
Since that day my mum has been full time guardian to my nephew Chris who is severely autistic and due to the trauma he suffered he does not speak. Not only does she care for him but she's put everything she's got into protecting him and making sure he is surrounded by love and support.
And she has achieved that 10 fold. I hate to think what Chris' life would be like had she not saved him for the hell he was in.
At 15 my world was turned up side down. I can't begin to explain what it was like to live with something like this. I didn't have a childhood like the other kids my age did. I was a full time Aunty and my nights and weekends were spent looking after Chris.
Now, I'm nearly 25. I still live with and look after Chris daily and enjoy every second of it. He is the most amazing boy and I love to watch him achieve the things he has. He is living his life for two and making the most of every second of every day.
 |
| Warrandyte Cemetery |
We all had our own little way of remembering her, did our own special little thing.
The weather was nice in Warrandyte this Saturday. It always seems to be a nice day when I go to visit her. BJ and I planned to spend the day out together in Warrandyte and do whatever we wanted.
We went to visit Beanca's grave with some trinkets and flowers and then went and wondered the shops and had a nice quiet lunch together. After that I took BJ somewhere special.. Somewhere that i haven't been for 10 and 1/2 years. The place we took Beanca the last time we saw her. Pound Bend.
 |
| My rock - BJ |
I would never wish a tragedy like this on anyone ever.
I will never be able to move past this as it's changed my life in so many ways.
I'm thankful for all our family and friends who have stuck by us and supported us through days like this. It means so much to us to have so many who care about Chris and are looking out for his future.
The things I've remembered coming up to the 10th anniversary of Beanca's death amaze me. I can remember every little thing about her funeral, What i was planning to wear and what i ended up wearing. I remember who was there. I remember the tv show i was watching that night before mum sat us down to tell us what had happened. It's all soo clear like it was only yesterday.
I could go on for hours going into detail about the trails, hearings, appeals, newspaper articles, news reports, our experience with The Australian Story, and a million other things that came from this but I don't want to overload you all. I'm sure in the future i will probably do some others on this but for now... This is enough.
 | |
| Chris and I - 2011 |
I learnt very young that I needed to just be open about it all. If people couldn't handle it, that was there problem. But if we didn't speak out about it, we would never have gotten sooo much support from people.
So there is an insight to my world.
xx
Smorgy
