3rd December 2008
My Darling
Your light shines on me everyday and even though I'm a mess with out you here I'm waiting for the day that we will be together again. It has been 8 months and not a day, an hour, a minute has gone by without wanting to be holding you in my arms or giving you a little massage on your feet or playing with your hair, talking about stuff and running around with you on errands and having hot chocolates and coffee for a break. Just sitting with you looking at the trees - I miss you so much everyday - you got me... you understood me and I got you and understood you .... we fit together, we chose each other and loved each other, I will always love you and I know you will always love me.
I'm doing the walk from Adelaide to Brisbane, I'm not sure if its the right thing to do right now but I can still here you telling me you wanted to do the walk with me - so we are doing baby - you will be with me the whole way and I will try to less sad all the time, I know you wouldn't want that and you might have already told me to get on with it by now.
It's just a very painful, gut wrenching, intangible, set of feelings that debilitate you physically and mentally, Brony you are and always will be my everything.
Love u XXX
3rd October 2008
I
just wanted to write and remember the wonderful person that Brony was to all
of us and that I hope her memory, energy and vitality in some way may
continue to assist us when we might need to draw upon it.3/8/08
Dear Booboo
Four months has passed since I saw your smiling face, touched your skin, kissed your lips, held your hand, massaged your feet, heard your voice, caressed your hair, talked with you, laughed with you.
I told you I loved you several times every day and now that doesn't seem enough, we spent every day together these past few years and now that seems like we only had a lunch together once, you were always so strong and always upbeat and now I feel so weak and sad, we made plans for our future together and for all the fun to come but now I am lost without you all the fun has gone. We would fall asleep together and wake up together, now I fall asleep crying and wake up crying. We were growing together learning new lessons that life was bringing us now I have learnt the pain of loosing you from this life is no lesson at all.
Im sorry baby, we tried so hard to get through everything that was sent our way, you never complained never gave up never got sad, you were so amazing you made life fun, you made being with you the most amazing joyful experience just by being you!!
You are with me every minute of everyday, I wish I could be with you now - one day soon we will be having fun together somewhere beautiful and peaceful,
I love you booboo,
your Raldi
10/4/08
TRIBUTES below
Harald Ulriksen - Husband - Sydney Australia
Kate Mcleay - Kampala Uganda
Lucy Wilkinson - Queenstown NZ
Written by Harald before wedding on 17 Dec 2005
My Everything
She is sweet, she is full of life and joy,
she is amazing, she is kind, open hearted, delightful, passionate, innocent, full of potential, full of dreams, full of hope....
She is my partner, she makes me whole, she makes everything OK,
she is the best thing that happened to me.
She is my friend, my lover, my best half.
She is my inspiration and my reason for being,
she is my light and my joy.
I love her for who she is and how she is.
She is my everything,
"love you always ....Harald"
words cannot describe the immense feeling of emptiness Im am now feeling, my world has stopped, has been shattered and I am numb, Brony was everything to me, as we shared and did most things together and to have the person that you love with all your heart, care for with all your being, that is part of you..... taken away....I have no way of dealing with that pain at the moment it just hurts every minute I am without her.
She showed us how to be strong and how to move forward through pain...she endured so much and always did it with a smile when in public and with humbleness, never wanting to impact on others lives, She is amazing and I love her so much.
Kate McLeay.
Kampala, Uganda. 9 April 2008
A Tribute to my Friend Brony The Shining Light
What was it about our Brony that made us all love her? Was it her shining smile; or the way she carried her gorgeous being without knowing just how very beautiful and incredibly talented she was? Was it the way she was always so firmly on your side.. no matter what you’d done? Or the way she was just so so nice to be with and how spending time with her never failed to make you feel happy? .. or come to think of it was it that lovely voice of hers and the special way she said hello.. or how she could sing and dance.. or how she loved your kids.. or the way she always saw the best in everyone??
Brony was such a shining light. Beautiful on the outside AND on the inside. Fun, feisty, fiercely loyal, talented, forgiving, hugely generous, clever, brimming full of love and belief in others,.. an inspiring angel on earth who lifted your soul to get a glimpse of the stars; spreading magic on her way.
Nelson Mandela said that “the greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” Brony sparkled in life like the Maharaja Diamond and fought cancer to the death like a warrior queen: courageous, staunch in the face of adversity, brave at heart and on her own terms. With her wonderful man Harald as her unwavering champion they defied the odds. Harald, we salute you. You gave everything you had, and then more, more and more.
For Brony’s family, her lovely Mum and Dad, her treasured sisters and brother.. her adored nieces and nephews and her many, many, many friends. We feel and share your enormous loss.
Brony’s and H’s plans of coming to Africa have been in my heart and in truth Brony is here with me often. Her music reverberates around our house out onto Lake Victoria and through my kids school in Kampala and I picture it rocking the schools in the slums that I visit with Brony next to me bouncing around with the boundless energy of Winnie to Pooh’s Tigger. Whenever I see a child smile one of those unbeatable African smiles I think of Brony and how she would sparkle right on back. When I hear stories that would break your heart or smile till you cried I know how she would try to help, just because she could.. or perhaps because she couldn’t not. During my last visit with her in Sydney in August she listened to my dreams for doing more to help some of the many vulnerable children in Uganda and she insisted on making this dream into a reality. With Brony on my shoulder I came back and drilled through red tape to register a non profit company, took over a sponsorship programme that currently educates and cares for the needs of 19 secondary school orphans and then got a bit of funding to finish building a primary school for a local community for 200 orphan and vulnerable children on Lake Victoria. People arrived out of the blue to help and the walls are up, roof is on and windows and doors being built as I write. An auspicious start to the dream. For me Brony will live on in the smiles of children whose lives are enriched for no other reason than in a world full of madness it seems to make perfect sense to do so.
Nathan Schaeffer wrote: "At the close of life the question will be
Not how much have
you got, but how much have you given;
Not how much
have you won, but how much have you done;
Not how much
have you saved, but how much have you sacrificed;
How much have
you loved and served, not how much were you honoured."
Beautiful Brony, you have given and done, sacrificed, loved and served. We honour and love you for the great gift you were and are to our lives. Shine on in your wonderland. You are forever in our hearts.
Love and light from your friends always, Kate, Cam, Archie, Arabella and Alexander McLeay.
Email
From Lucy Wilkinson -
I met Brony when I was going through a hard time in my life. She hardly knew me but offered her friendship and support. Brony’s beautiful spirit was immediately very apparent to me. Brony had a gift in making people feel special and valued. She had a sensitive soul but a strong character and a positive attitude. When Brony set her mind to something, nothing would stop her achieving those goals.
I was full of admiration for Brony when she set up Rhythm Factory. I remember her hoping to get 50 children and instead it reached a few hundred which seemed almost overnight! The children must have thought the dance angel had descended on them, as Brony touched them all, in her unique and special way.
Of course she knew how to party too! Not that I ever remember getting drunk with Brony. We simply danced the nights away.
On one occasion we foolishly set off to Mt Aspiring Hut in the dark and rain. We had intended to start walking in daylight but had been held up for two hours because of work being done on the access road. Instead of abandoning our plans we set off with torches in hand. The batteries in our torches began to fade and we anxiously kept walking, all the while convinced the hut was near. Our dilemma being that we had walked so far we didn’t think the torches would last if we turned around. To our dismay the torches went out. We walked on for a little way but then began to worry that we would walk straight past the hut in the dark. We decided to turn around. On more than one occasion we lost the path and we were completely soaked. The light rain was now a downpour and the river was rising. We didn’t have any form of shelter and were both very aware of the danger we were in. Of course we were very stupid for setting out on this adventure in the first instance but Brony remained calm and I was very impressed by her strength of character. Thankfully we made our way back to the car and safety.
On this rainy night I was surprised by Brony’s fearless attitude. It was a side of her I had not seen before and I remember thinking she was a good friend to have around in a crises.
Brony lived life to the full and handled its knocks with an open mind and an open heart. It has been an honour to be part of her life and I will miss her dearly.
All my love
Lucy
Harald
Life
is like a book with may chapters, I think Brony would have named this chapter
of her life.
The nuts girls “a drive through Africa”
The concept was dreamed up by Brony whilst we were cursing through east Africa on a organized Epulu safari trip. Brony piped up and said we could do this for ourselves, lets do it. If any one new Brony from that moment on we were going to do our own safari which started in London and finished in South Africa and took us over a year and 22,000 miles. The truck was built, which was no mean feat, since our welding skills were non existent, the girls solved the issue by grabbing drills nuts and bolts, and like a micano set, began building our truck which was named NUTS, aptly due to the amount of steel nuts used in building her. (some people had other ideas about the reason for this name, more like these girls are nuts.) Then we were off , Africa lay before us. Brony first had the dream and that was it – that was Brony – the motivator – the organizer – the one that made things happen. The word cant, wasn’t in Bronys vocabulary..
It was the same when we were in Africa – if the border guards wouldn’t let us thru the borders – Brony would go and sort them out. If we needed to change money on the blackmarket – Brony would be off on a mission. She was fearless, she was courageous and it is a strength that we have always admired.
We would like to share a few of the memories that may help you realize what this chapter of Bronys life was like, and why we formed such a close bond - friendship.
Like the day we were trapped in the middle of a sand storm, we parked the trucks windscreen to windscreen so the sand would not disfigure the glass, thinking what a crap day, next thing we see a sign in the opposing windscreen asking us to make some maori bread, so we all piled into the nuts truck and chowed down waiting out the sand storm and talking the hours away.
Or the many times we used a hand pump, pushing the pump handle from side to side to pump a 152 gallons of diesel 1 gallon at a time, between all four girls this took some considerable hours, and a number of beers to keep the pumps going. Not to mention finding 152 little stone so diesel pump owner could keep count of how many gallons we had taken.
Another time when we were so scared about a certain part of the trip, that we’d hold hands to go to the lu, while we each took turn standing guard.
The time the green highly poisonous snake slid through the old cigarette hole in the cab, and slid across Annas arm to eventually lay across the dash board, Merran slamed on the brakes and both Brony and I got thrown the entire length of the truck, screaming what is going on, only to get back hysterical screams from the front.
The time we gave a doll to a little girl in the village because she was crying and we turned away for a couple of minutes when we turned around the was 30 little girls wanting a doll.
The time the swarm of 10 of thousands of locus invaded the back of the truck and when after the panic we got to you you were in your sleeping bag and when Merran touched you you thought she was a big gianourmous locus and scream at her to get off you and to get away. You always did hate anything with wings that flew.
The bond between us is so strong, that even Africa itself could not break it. We want everyone to know that you are the most awesome strong beautiful passionate person that this world could ever produce. Your will forever be part of us. You are that freebird that we sang about.
We will forever be, the Nuts girls
Brony Lee Merran and Anna.
My Dear Harald and to Noeline and family,
On this very difficult time, although we are so far away, we join you praying
that the pain of not having Brony at this moment will ease with time believing
that she is our Shining Light.
It is comforting to think that Brony's beautiful and brave spirit is in a
wonderful place with angels dancing and singing lovely songs. In the
meantime, thousands of young children will continue to sing and dance to the
rhythm of her songs. As it was her dream, she created a place for children to
learn and share her passion for music and dancing.
Her light will always shine on our lives!
From Chile, on the other side of the world, we send our love and we join you in
Spirit to celebrate a beautiful, creative, talented, brave and loving Brony and
we will always remember her lovely smile despite the hard battle she had to go
through.
With love from
Mum and Beno and family and also we send greetings on behalf of
Chalo and Loly and family and Anneliese and Sergio and family
Song written in memory of Brony - by Amanda Kelly
BRONY
An angel has left the world today.
An anchor of kindness and hope.
Your sun has been lit and will always fill our hearts.
Caring softly.
Guiding gently.
Bringing change to all.
Only to serve her cause.
And you never bleed.
So strong in your deed.
Giving to all and sharing your grace.
Smiles they will have because of your love.
Never give up.
You showed me the way.
We'll always remember your smile.
Precious gifts for the young.
Now they'll grow with your heart.