Create a sea of love for Karen's family

On Thursday October 2nd Karen lost her life on the Franklin River. She was fulfilling a long-held dream - an adventure in one of the most beautiful places in the world with her beloved husband Al and three dear friends. They were in a party of eleven brave humans, to whom we are forever indebted for their extraordinary level of care, bravery and heroism during such a tragic ordeal.

Karen was truely a living love letter to life. She was expansive, beautiful, deeply treasured, wild and as intricate as the waves of The Southern Ocean. Karen is warmly remembered as living in celebration of relationships in all their complexity and richness with everyone she knew, but above all with her beautiful family; husband Al and children, Asha, Clay and Zavier, for whom this loss is indescribably immense and for whom we are creating this gofundme page.

We would love to give Al, Asha, Clay and Zavier as much time and space as possible, with freedom from any practical concerns that we can lift from their shoulders. Alongside the unfathomable loss of darling Karen, the new reality this beloved family has to navigate will require significant resources and time away from work.

Karen was a rare being. She had the warmth of a remote hut fire, the tenderness to cup heat-wearied desert birds in her hands and take them to water. The grit and wildness to jump out of aeroplanes, sidle up to Komodo dragons and giant cuttlefish. Her magnetism, like the earth's, gently drew us together and kept us safely in her loving, breathing, and vital atmosphere.

Karen was so many things to so many people. An extraordinary life partner, mother, daughter and sister, and a friend to many. She lives on through the lessons and love she gave to them all.

Her love of words gave us her stories to hold on to. It bound her to the writer's group she delighted in, the loving relationships that grew through her teaching profession, and the Story Circle she crafted for the children she cherished and guided with her gentle hand to find and share their own voices.

As we hold her in our hearts, let us do our best be these things for Al, Asha, Clay and Zavier and provide them here with the resources they will need to feel held, nourished and to nurture themselves through this time of grief and transition.