Mellissa's Story

ON THIS DAY

By Mellissa Randall

Monday April 24th started out as any normal day! I didn't go to work as I wasn't feeling the best. I had some things to take care of and one of them was for Chaz & his son Dylan. I organised what I had to and rang him at about 10:30am to tell him it was done. He was happy to hear from me and at the end of the conversation he said "No worries Mel Bel, you have a good day sweet".

Later that afternoon I went to a friends house for tea.  As I was leaving my friend Kerry called me and asked if Chaz was okay. I said "Yeah of course he is you tripper, why wouldn't he be?" She said that she had seen the 5 o'clock news about a work accident and that there was a boy on there throwing his mobile phone and it looked a lot like Dylan. I continued to say "No way, Chaz is fine, I would've heard if something was wrong". 

At this time I thought nothing of it and continued on to my friends house. Not long after arriving I sent Chaz an sms to tell him I was going to give him some money (it was a bit of a long standing joke between us!!) and it ended with "He He J". I didn't get a response but I didn't think that much of it as he was probably still at work. 

The 6 o'clock news came on and I saw a horrible story of two men being killed in industrial accidents and thought to myself "those poor families". Even though I was watching I hadn't taken that much notice as we were all talking. I then got an sms and thought it was Chaz. It was my Mum asking me to phone her. I used my friends phone and Mum said she had bad news. My immediate thought was that my elderly Aunt had passed away and asked her if that was it. She said "no". I then asked her if I really wanted to hear and she said "no". I braced myself and told her to continue and then she said Chaz had been killed. 

I fell to the floor screaming "oh no" and "oh my god" over and over again. I have never reacted like that to a death before, I could literally feel my heart breaking and all I thought of was my niece and nephew. My heart was breaking at the fact that they have lost their Dad and he was such a huge part of their lives, it was just so unfair. 

My heart was breaking for my sister who just lost her 'rock' and it was breaking for me. I had lost a part of me. Chaz was like a guardian angel to me, always looking after me and going out of his way to help. The rest of the night is a blur, all I wanted to do was be with my sister but she needed this night to herself with her children to sit them down and tell them their daddy is gone and won't be coming home anymore. 

It is such a huge loss to them, Chaz was a very 'hands on' Dad and always involved himself in their lives, he wasn't a Dad that just sat back and let Mum do the work. Everything he did was for his kids, all six of them and now there are six kids with their hearts broken.

I then had to phone my own children who were with their Dad and let them know that their Uncle Chaz was gone. 

Chelsea, my daughter had the same reaction as me, she was devastated. She absolutely loved her Uncle Chaz, she adored him. My son Bradley was in complete shock and was just very quiet. He also loved his Uncle Chaz heaps. Chaz took him motor bike riding, to the Clipsal 500 and took him and Dalton out to see the Monster Trucks!! Chaz always thought of Bradley and Chelsea when anything was happening and always wanted to involve them, their connection was very strong.

I will never forget that day and I will never ever forget our beautiful Chaz. I will never forget all the wonderful things he did for me that used to make me cry because it amazed me each time. 

I love you Chaz and I know that you are watching over all of us………until we meet again!