The List - No. 51 April-Aug 2005

I mentioned in No. 33 that I had been in touch with a boy/man out of my class from Year 10 at Croydon High School. When Mark, Claire and I went to Rainbow Beach Qld last year, we caught a bus to Gympie to meet Niall and his family.

Recently when Andrea (No. 50) was staying here, we went to visit the sister of a friend of ours that died when she was 19. Michelle died of encephalitis or some other nasty virus and left a three month old baby. Her sister Mandy now runs a craft shop in Mount Evelyn and she told us another girl we knew had passed away in February. I started thinking about the people we know from the Croydon area that have died and the list is quite disturbing.

I sent the list to Niall and he mentioned one or two that I had left off. He also said that he felt he had a place on the list, given that he had been clinically dead on more that one occasion. I said to him that I didn't want to jinx him.

Last month I received a very sad email from his brother to say that Niall had passed away.

Below is the list and it is written with respect. Some of the dates/ages are approximates.

RIP

Peter Kawolski 18 1976 - Car hit a tree in Mt Dandenong road.
Russell Hurst 19 1981 - Car accident
Micky Scanlon ? - Car accident
Debbie Price 19 Early 1980's - Rumoured to have died in childbirth
Paul Blaha - 24 1982 Motorbike accident, a freak wave on a beach road
Barry Tait - Late 20's Early 1980's- Murdered (run over) at the Bayswater Hotel
Michelle Warr 19 1982 - Encephalytis or menangitis
Simon Meijer 21 1986 - Hit a parked car on his motorbike
Sue Jackson - Heroin overdose
Lisa Simmons 24 1987 - Murdered by boyfriend
Shane Maskel 39 2002 - Died from complications after hurting his foot at his wife's funeral
Debbie Yole 42 2005 - A fall from the window of a city motel
Niall Stubbs 42 2005 - Suffocation during a seizure

Dates and ages are approximate.