By RUSSELL BENNETT
SHARN Walker once painted her name on Elephant Rock to celebrate her Grade 6 graduation with the rest of her classmates.
Today (Monday) would have been her 17th birthday.
But hers – along with Jason Breakwell’s and Felisha Allen’s – was one of three lives lost in a horrific Avonsleigh crash on 30 June.
The grief felt by the hills community has since remained, but on Sunday many of Sharn’s friends and team-mates converged on the rock – a famous local landmark on Beaconsfield-Emerald Road – to pay tribute to a beautiful soul. While they’re all still in mourning, this was a celebration – a rainbow-themed homage to Sharn’s colourful, bubbly personality.
“Since the accident we’ve all been really united as a group and we miss her terribly,” said Nikki Argoon, Emerald’s A Grade netball captain and great friend of Sharn’s mother, Kim, and father, Tony.
“We felt like we wanted to do something to acknowledge her birthday and to remind Kim and Tony that we never stop thinking about her.”
Nikki said the tragedy had a unifying effect on the Emerald Bombers Football Netball Club, but also provided some much-needed perspective on the eve of a finals campaign.
“It’s really great to play sport – it’s fantastic and it’s a great opportunity to make friends and to feel like you’re more of a family – but putting it into perspective it’s just a game,” she said.
“This is about acknowledging Sharn and keeping her close to our hearts.
“The finals start for us this week and we’ve got all four teams in the finals, so we’re really proud of that given the setbacks of the past six or seven weeks.”
Nikki said Sharn’s family was overwhelmed by the outpouring of support, not only by the Bombers community, but the wider hills community as a whole.
“I think it has buoyed them and helped them in the grieving process to know they have that community support and that so many people reached out to them and showed their concern,” Nikki said.
“Sharn’s funeral was unbelievable – there was over 1200 people there. It’s such a testament to who Tony and Kim are as people, and the input they’ve head into the Emerald Football Netball Club over the years.”
Though the Bombers are still grieving, a number of players and club members turned up to Elephant Rock on Sunday – paint brushes at the ready, and with the simple image of a rainbow to inspire them.
“When Kim and Tony, and us as a family and group of close friends, first went up to the tree where the accident happened, it was really distressing and the family was very emotional,” Nikki said.
“But in all the emotion and everything that was going on – with people sobbing and being really confronted by where we were – we turned around and in the paddock opposite was the most beautiful rainbow you’ve ever seen in your life.
“I said to Kim ‘she’s here – she’s with you’. She felt like it was a sign from her girl telling her that she’s here and she’s with us, and that everything will be alright. “We’ve embraced that as Sharn’s special thing.”
Unbelievably fittingly, Nikki said she’d never seen as many rainbows in a single winter as she has since the crash. It’s a beautiful, constant reminder of a beautiful young girl taken far too soon.
“We’re still in a grieving process,” Nikki said.
“This (painting the rock) is our way of putting it out there, because there has to be a message come out of this tragedy.
“If some kids get in their cars and really think about what they’re doing, and about the responsibility that comes with driving a motor vehicle and taking care of your friends and making the right choices, this is a reminder of that.
“For these young people (at the club), they lost three friends that day. We’re mourning Sharn, but they lost three friends. Some of them had never been touched by death in their lives and to be touched by it three times over… the gravity of that is just huge. For some of these young people, dealing with this is a day-by-day process.”
