Each morning Barbara Symonds strolls the streets of Brisbane playing a song that makes her feel like she has been joined on her morning walk by a loved one.

“Іѕ thеrе а bаr uр there where уоu’vе gоt а fаvоurіtе сhаіr?”

The lyrics to the Pink song hit home because they not only remind her of late son and Australian cricket legend Andrew Symonds, but make her feel closer to him.

“I can just imagine him up there sitting at a bar,” Barbara said.

“I am a bit sentimental. As a family we used to play a lot of music and when we went on road trips we would have the music playing.

“I walk every morning for some exercise and I have certain songs that make me think of Andrew. I play them quite often.”

It’s been three years to the day since Symonds died when his car veered off the road just outside of Townsville at the age of 46.

In an instant one of the most loved larrikins of Australian sport was lost and the cricketing world mourned the passing of the Test champion.

It was around 2am on May 14, 2022, when Barbara was woken by the phone call that felt like a sledge hammer to the chest.

It was Andrew’s brother Nick who then had the duty of calling their younger sister Louise.

“I feel for anyone who has those unexpected things that knock you off your feet,” Louise recounted.

“Maybe you never recover from it but you learn that it’s an unfortunate part of life that these awful things can happen.

“You don’t know until you are in it what that kick in the chest feels like and you never recover from that. It’s awful. I wouldn't wish it upon anyone.

“We are not the first family that this has happened to but it doesn’t make it any easier. We are lucky that he has left such a legacy.”

The grief felt by the family came just three years after the death of Andrew’s father Ken.

Barbara suffered multiple heart attacks in the wake of Ken’s death from the stress of what she labelled a broken heart. Now she had to deal with another.

“I’m on medication to help with my heart and in a way it has helped me cope with Andrew’s loss.”

The journey over the past three years has been a tough one for the Symonds family but one that has been helped by the reaction of the sporting world who loved one of cricket’s great characters.

“It’s been lovely and very heart warming,” Barbara said.

“Someone might come up to me and tell me about the time he helped them get their shopping into their car or something simple like that. He was a good person.”

Louise still works and lives in Townsville and recalled the selfless and laid back nature of a man who would even give the local mayor fresh mud crabs on occasion.

“I hear stories about him all the time and I love the fact that he hasn’t been forgotten,” Louise said.

Barbara still visits Townsville several times a year to spend time with Louise and Symonds’ friends in north Queensland, often going to the Brothers Leagues Club where he loved to frequent.

“I love going up north and catching up with all his mates because talking to them makes me feel like he is still around,” Barbara said.

“He made friends so easily. Someone at the boat ramp would strike up a conversation and he would meet them for a drink later and exchange fishing tales.

“He was happiest when he was doing fishing trips or crabbing and anything outdoors. I think that is why Townsville suited him.”

The family also get together with friends around the anniversary of his death each year to eat seafood and remember the man who lit up cricket fields with his big-hitting style and flare on the field.

The fun-loving all-rounder had a hugely successful career across multiple formats, despite not taking his mother’s advice all the time.

“Even from when he was a junior right up to when he started to play for Queensland I used to say to him to keep it on the ground so he didn’t get caught,” Barbara said.

“That’s how he kept getting out but he thought it was hilarious that his mum was telling him this because all he wanted to do was hit sixes.”

Symonds may not have listened to his mother’s coaching tips but he loved family more than anything, so much so a man who was so unflinching had to come up with a story for why a teammate shaved his head overseas.

“He phoned me up and said he had a lot of head lice and had to do it. I think he just needed an excuse,” Barbara said.

Barbara has an Australian Test shirt, cricket stump and painting of Symonds hanging up in the corner of her Brisbane house but revealed you were more likely to see fishing rods than cricket memorabilia in his Townsville house.

“You wouldn’t have gone in there and thought someone who was cricket obsessed lived there,” Barbara said.

“He had a couple of shots from the latter part of his career in photo frames and a picture of Don Bradman that he got signed but not much else.”

Louise visited the site of Symonds’ crash in the days after the 2022 tragedy but has only been back out there a few times since. Locals have set up a permanent fixture as a tribute to the man who lived just 10 minutes away from the spot he died.

“It is hard (to visit),” Louise said.

“It’s surreal. It’s one of those things you put out of your mind. I’d hate to think he suffered.”

Multiple awards have been named after Symonds in the wake of his death, including the junior cricketer of the year at his former club Gold Coast Dolphins.

Queensland Cricket’s player’s player award has also been named after Symonds who was also recently inducted into the Gold Coast Sporting Hall of Fame.

Louise revealed it was her Ken who predominantly took on the role of speaking at public events but she has since watched Barbara channel the strength of her father and Symonds to present the awards named in her son’s honour.

“When I spoke at Andrew’s funeral I was so nervous but this year I have hardly been nervous at all,” Barbara revealed.

“I want to do it honour him and I want to do it well because it means so much.”