Family
I am very lucky to have had two sons, two years apart. What an amazing journey to what these two boys grow through life.
We made sure that although very busy with our ever growing business, we always included the kids, so they were a huge part of business life. Being a tourism based business, it allowed the flexibility to have away from home bases, ie: the business owned a house on Fraser Island, a farm with an airstrip on it, a unit on the Sunshine coast for staff accommodation, which allowed the kids to go fishing on Fraser, riding motor bikes on the farm and surfing on the Sunnycoast, so we had many of their friends and family in tow. Both boys were heavily intrenched in the business from the start. Becoming pilots themselves was just a given. They both started their flying training from the age of 15 and had their commercial pilots license by the time they were 18.
Dayne (my eldest) wanted to branch out further than Fraser Island and the family business and was able to secure a flying position in the Kakadoo, Northern Territory.
On Dayne’s return from the Norther Territory he realised he had lost the passion of flying and wanted to persue his love of cooking and embarked on an Chef’s apprenticeship.
As young as Troy was, he was nearing the end of his commercial flying training and he was now flying in the family business.
Everything was next to perfect but then out of nowhere, Dayne was tragically taken from us in a car accident. His death at such a young age of 22 with such a wonderful exciting life in front of him just rocked our family to the core. Destroying us all in different ways, his younger brother Troy found it very hard over the next year or so and he gained a massive amount of weight. BUT, he did pull himself out of this deep black hole and came out the other side, with the his partner(and now wife Lucy) by his side supporting him all the way. Not only did he loose his weight, but has now earnt the respect of not only nationally but internationally in the Triathlete and marathon running word. He is now a mentor for many. Unfortunately the amazing band that held our wonderful family together was destroyed through heartbreak and Troy’s Mum Terrina and I parted out went our separate ways.
NOW, fast forward to today….. I now have a wonderful woman Pam in my life. We are engaged and sometime soon to marry. We were childhood friends/sweethearts.
Young Troy who is now 32, not only is he now Chief Pilot at Air Fraser, the family business, but has branched out to purchase a Wholesale Dairy Distribution business with his wonderful wife Lucy. I couldn’t ask for a more amazing daughter-in-law and 2 gorgeous grandchildren, Harry 3 ½ (named after my Dad) and Amelia 1 ½ (named after the 1st female pilot in aviation)
So now with Pam in our lives, our family has grown even bigger and stronger, along with Pam’s Son and Daughter, their partners and 4 beautiful grandchildren.
Our family is once again complete.