Barney Wakes-Miller: Memorial service at St Augustine’s College Brookvale
A memorial service has been held at a northern beaches college to say goodbye to popular and talented high school student Barney Wakes-Miller, who died in a car crash.
Manly
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The best mates of a popular northern beaches’ teenager who died in a road crash formed a special guard of honour at a memorial service held at his high school hall on Friday.
Barney Wakes-Miller, who was in Year 11 at St Augustine’s College at Brookvale, died after the car he was travelling in crashed into a stone and iron fence late on July 18.
His dad, Duncan Wakes-Miller, told those at the service, and the hundreds of people who watched a live stream on the internet, that the 17-year-old “was our beautiful wild child” who “lived the life he wanted to live”.
Mr Wakes-Miller said that he and his wife Bella and their other children, Arthur, Tenzin and Iona, wanted the service to be a celebration of Barney’s life.
He told the service that his highly-talented son was not only a junior champion indoor rock climber, but he “had a go” at rugby union, rugby league, soccer and water polo.
Barney also had a passion for art. A large piece of material decorated with a “tag” he created was placed over his casket by his friends during the service.
Mr Wakes-Miller told the service that he was “proud to call you my son”.
“There is no prouder man on this earth, or prouder parents or prouder siblings. Our love is enduring.”
He described Barney as the “joker, the crazy kid” and said life was “fragile and unpredictable”.
“It also seems at times to be so unfair … stuff happens and you have to deal with it and, in time we will, that is a choice we have made.
“As Arthur wisely said to me ‘we will not get over this, we cannot go around it, we cannot go under it, we have to go through it’.
“Arthur is right”.
Mr Wakes-Miller said if Barney was here today he would have told everyone “don’t waste time, you don’t know how much time you have’.
“For us as parents, he was our beautiful wild child.
“I could speak for a thousand days and still not even come close to showing how much you meant to us.
“Thank you Barn”
His older brother Arthur said Barney “didn’t follow the path less travelled, he created it” and was not a person “bound by stereotypes”.
“If he was here today he’d say … make everyday a memory that you want to remember forever”.