Blue Mountains school in mourning after brothers’ death
The family of two Blue Mountains brothers whose bodies were found by their father on Tuesday have released a picture of them, as their tight-knit community mourns by leaving flowers and toys at their home and school.
NSW
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The family of two Blue Mountains brothers whose bodies were found by their father on Tuesday have released a picture of them, as their tight-knit school community have begun mourning them by leaving tributes of flower and toys at their home and school.
It comes as their mother’s writings on mental health have emerged online.
The bodies of brothers Russell and Ben Smith, aged 9 and 11, were found by their father Nick Smith at the family’s property in Faulconbridge early Tuesday afternoon. Mr Smith called police who launched a major investigation into their deaths.
Trish Smith, the boys’ 42-year-old mother, was at the property when emergency services arrived and was transported to Westmead Hospital under police guard in a stable condition with self-inflicted wounds.
She has not been charged.
The boys were beloved members of the Our Lady of Nativity school community and parish in Lawson and featured in dozens of the school’s recent Facebook posts smiling and receiving awards in STEM and sports.
On Wednesday Catholic Schools Parramatta Diocese said in a statement the entire community was grieving the loss of the two young students.
“Our Catholic schools community is devastated by the tragic deaths of Ben and Russell, two students of Our Lady of the Nativity Primary School in Lawson,” the statement said.
“Counselling and wellbeing support is available to students and staff at Our Lady of the Nativity today, and will continue to be provided in the coming weeks.
“The care and kindness of the broader Blue Mountains community at this difficult time is much appreciated.”
“Counselling and wellbeing support is available to students and staff at Our Lady of the Nativity today, and will continue to be provided in the coming weeks.
“The care and kindness of the broader Blue Mountains community at this difficult time is much appreciated.”
“With police investigations continuing, we are unable to comment any further at this time.”
Photographs shared to Facebook show the high achieving and seemingly happy young boys smiling while receiving certificates and medals for their work and also celebrating their birthdays.
Another image posted, shows the family - including mother Trish and father Nick at the Our Lady of Nativity Parish church for Easter in late March.
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After losing her job during the COVID-19 pandemic Trish Smith created start-up urban farming business, FarmSmith, in her front yard.
Sharing the business’ backstory in a 2021 blog post, Smith sung the praises of a mental health toolkit she”regularly” used after receiving it at a NSW DPI Young Farmer Business Conference in 2020.
Her post included plans to create a checklist for herself and future employees “to maintain good mental health”.
“Psychological skills are great when things are going well, and essential during a crisis,” she wrote.
“I feel really grateful that I have access to education and support to understand my mental health better, and it’s been empowering in the chaos that has been the last year, to be able to stop, bring awareness to my experience and then take steps to ensure I look after myself.
“I’m only just starting in my first growing season. My plan is to focus on what is within my control. Observe, monitor and plan. Make decisions based on my context and values. Use risk management across all aspects of the business to increase resilience. And most importantly, look after myself.”
Quoting a line from ‘Man’s Search for Meaning’ by Austrian philosopher Viktor Frankl, Smith wrote:
“To me this means that even though a situation is stressful and really difficult, with mindfulness, I can make decisions from a place of calm. It is within my power to choose this response.”
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