If the tragedies to hit Ballarat people over the last 48 hours are going to teach us anything, it’s life is way too short and tell the ones you love just that … you love them.
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Don’t put off telling your loved ones how you feel, because one day it may be too late.
Do it now, today. Because tomorrow may be too late.
But when you do say those three little, but powerful words, make sure you mean it.
Don’t make it a hollow gesture. Back it up with your actions, not just words.
The deaths of beloved Ballarat man Peter Dawson in a tragic skydiving accident in Queensland on Friday and also of a Ballarat bowler in a bus crash at Avoca on Saturday, have rocked this community to its core.
So much tragedy and heartbreak for one relatively small community to handle.
But also so much outpouring of love from the Ballarat community for those affected by these two tragedies.
For those who knew Peter, they have described him as someone “so rare in this world” a “truth teller, a kind soul”, “honest” and respectable”.
Similar sentiments have been coming thick and fast for Creswick woman Carmel Mitchell, who was killed in the horrific bus crash at Avoca on Saturday.
People have described her as a “lovely and kind woman who will be sadly missed”. And this from another: “Lots of wonderful memories ….”
Many of the messages have come from complete strangers who have been touched by tragedy at Avoca in which a bus load of Ballarat bowlers travelling home from Mildura rolled and ended on its side.
The sheer amount of comments from relative strangers only goes to prove these tragedies have a ripple effect within the community.
And it’s testimony to the compassion people in the Ballarat region have for others – people they may not even know – in times of tragedy and adversity.
The families of those affected by the skydiving accident in Queensland and those suffering because of the bus crash at Avoca can take a great deal of comfort from out outpouring of grief, sympathy and support given by the Ballarat community.
It is sad, though, that it takes tragedies like these for many people to be jolted back into reality … and that reality is no-one knows what’s around the corner. No-one knows when tragedy will be strike and who will be affected.