The ones I never got to meet

I wrote about the lives of many I never got to meet.

As a young journalist, I asked questions of their loved ones to learn about them, and to share their lives and loss with the wider world.

The love and grief in family, in friends, with so many missing early on, and later, confirmed lost, was a grief felt by those closest to them as well as a town, a nation and the world.

Through the Lee family and the Cartwright family I learned how much Aaron, Justin and Stacey Lee and Bronwyn Cartwright meant to the world.

Therese Fox, who survived incredible odds, felt like a miracle. Her generous and loving family allowed me in to the Sydney hospital where she began her treatment and recovery. They allowed me to follow her life for the next 12 months as she gained strength and met the first year anniversary of a bombing that rocked Bali and Australia.

I spent the first anniversary of the bombing in Bali. I listened to each of the names of the many dead read out as part of the memorial ceremony, the voices rolling their names like waves of grief over the crowd.

It’s been 20 years. It’s only been 20 years.

It’s unlikely that grief has lessened for the families of any of those who were lost.

Those tears don’t end.

October 12 2002