Mitchell Gaffney, a recently married man, is grieving the devastating loss of ten of his closest friends.
Ten of Mitchell Gaffney’s closest friends, all of whom died very suddenly on his wedding night on June 11 three weeks ago, are mourning the newlywed.
Yesterday (July 4th) in Sydney, Australia, at the funeral of his very dear friend Zachary Bray, Gaffney finally opened up about the traumatic event.
After a reception at the Wandin Valley Estate, Bray and nine other Gaffney friends were killed in the disaster in NSW’s Hunter Valley near Greta.
35 people traveled by bus to the wedding of Gaffney and Madeleine Edsell.
Bray, 29, was remembered at his funeral service in Macquarie Park as a beloved brother and son who triumphantly beat bowel cancer.
Gaffney took the opportunity to express his deep appreciation for his friend, who he first met while playing football with the Singleton Roosters in the Australian Football League (AFL).
You’ll always be by our side, even if you never get a chance to put on a sweater again, he said.
Gaffney also playfully explained why Bray’s football teammates called him “Labrador” or “Lab.”
Because Labradors are friendly and sweet dogs who always have a big smile on their faces, they became known as the labrador or lab, according to Gaffney.
Gaffney constantly drew parallels with football, describing Bray as the ideal team player who “had the ability to make everyone feel involved”.
We are lucky to have these memories together and will always cherish them, he said.
Friends, relatives, and other loved ones attended Bray’s funeral service to pay their respects.
His friend Georgie Copeland said: “I can’t deny it; my heart hurts. However, I am aware of how much it hurts because she was so truthful.”
The man’s mother Jacqui Varasdi went on to describe raising Bray as her “greatest achievement”.
She continued, “And seeing you here lying in this box just doesn’t make any sense,” before saying goodbye one last time with their favorite song, “You Are My Sunshine.”
“I can still hear the joy in your voice and picture that huge smile on your face as you excitedly talked about Mitch and Maddie’s wedding when we spoke the day before you died.
Adam, Bray’s father, also remembered him as a pilot and spoke of his son as having “a uniquely pure soul”.
“Over and out,” his father said as he delivered the final remarks. He says, “Rest in peace, my beautiful boy.”
The father reportedly recalled how he was stopped by police as he tried to find his child on a bus that had flipped on its side.
“I just said, ‘My child is on that bus,’ and they said, ‘If your son is on that bus, you honestly don’t want to see him,'” he added.
The grieving father said: “I just sat on the ground by myself and collapsed for an hour.
Days after the June 13 disaster, bus driver Brett Andrew Button was granted bail. He was charged with ten counts of reckless driving and one count of careless driving causing death.
The 58-year-old will appear at Newcastle Local Court on August 9.
More than AUD$1 million has already been raised for the Hunter Valley (NSW) Bus Tragedy Fund (RABS), which was established to provide philanthropic aid and support to survivors, victims, and their immediate families of the horrific bus disaster.
As Mitchell Gaffney and the community mourn the loss of their dear friends, they draw strength from their cherished memories. The pain of this tragedy will no doubt linger, but the love and bond shared between these friends will live on in their hearts. In their collective grief, they find solace in supporting each other and honoring the memory of those they have lost. May they find healing and strength as they go through this unimaginable grief.