WHEN I met Carmel we were in Year 7.
We were all new and none of us knew each other. As chance would have it I sat next to Carmel.
I was sitting with my chair pushed right out and Carmel was trying to get past but she was so sweet and shy she couldn’t ask and it took me ages to realise. When I did, I quickly pulled my chair in and we laughed and were mates from then on.
Carmel grew up in Fitzroy Falls with her mother and father and older sister Marcell.
Marcell and Carmel were very close, Marcell being only one year older.
Carmel’s dad was a signwriter and worked for himself out of his garage.
They were very well known people in the community of Fitzroy Falls and I remember attending a lot of functions with the Georges and their friends.
Carmel was well-loved among her peers. She had a reputation for giggling and was incredibly funny - the life of the party.
She had a cute lovableness about her that made her seem a little gullible at times, but she was far from stupid.
Carmel was among the top group in the trial exams in Year 12 and went on to study at university. She did a degree to become a teacher in Wollongong.
She was very creative and, like her father, artistic. She took part in school performances.
One notable performance and dance that she, Marcell and a few others put on was Echo Beach at the Moss Vale High School concert. It was a great hit.
She and I were both in the school choir and after we had left school we would often get together and play guitar and write songs.
Much later, when we were in our 20s, Carmel was still writing songs and had a real talent for it. It became an important tool for Carmel to express her feelings.
But Carmel didn’t bounce back easily from a few shocking events in her young life, including when her engagement to her much-loved fiance ended.
Unfortunately her shock and sadness led her away from the life she had envisioned.
She spent a long time grappling with various addictions and won all of them, except for the final one - alcohol. Right before she died she had been in rehab and without a drink for 13 weeks.
It’s not clear why she left rehab but it’s possible she had heard about the school reunion that was on that weekend and wanted to come.
She was sorely missed but everyone was really happy that she was in rehab and that there was a chance she would be happy and well for the next one.
The week before she died she called a friend and said she was doing well and was determined to get through it.
We are shocked and sad beyond words to have lost one of our dearest friends and, although in recent years our paths had led us in different directions, there is an unshakable love and bond formed between friends over the formative years of school and our early 20s.
We knew of Carmel’s troubles but we had faith that in the end she would come through and we were waiting to offer any help we could.
I truly believe that she had turned a corner, and after a long battle it seems so unfair that her short life should have ended so suddenly.
My heart goes out to Jenny, Carmel’s mother, and Marcell as they also lost Chris, Carmel’s father, only last year.
Such a lot of tragedy for a small family.
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