Hunter Valley wedding bus crash: Final funeral held for mother and daughter
A man whose wife and daughter were killed in a horror wedding bus crash choked back tears as he said goodbye to “my girls”.
WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are warned this article contains images and voices of deceased persons.
A man whose wife and daughter were killed in a horror wedding bus crash has said his final goodbye to them at a celebration of their life.
Nadene McBride and her daughter Kyah were among 10 people who died in the crash just hours after watching Mitch Gaffney and Maddy Edsell tie the knot at Lovedale in the NSW Hunter Valley on June 11.
At the outset of the ceremony, Graham McBride rose from the pews, facing away from the guests, and quietly reflected in front of the pair’s caskets.
He lit a candle for his wife and only daughter and stood in silence for a moment before the ceremony began.
“So now’s the time to say goodbye to my girls and the people who have passed in this tragedy,” he said while choking back tears at the close of the service.
A single white dove was released in honour of each of the 10 victims, a tribute to Kyah who once told her father that when a white feather crosses your path it represents the soul of a loved one looking out for them.
“As I move forward from this moment today, each step I take on his path of recovery is to honour my girls,” Mr McBride said.
“Nads and Kyah have kicked so many goals in their life, now it’s time to kick goals for Nads and Kyah.”
At the end of his speech and with the help of family friend and former deputy editor of the local paper, Alex Tigani, Mr McBride raised a Singleton Roosters premiership cup in honour of his girls.
“This one’s for you girls,” Mr Tigani said.
Mr McBride also made a point of reminding the guests of the heroic efforts of the first responders and thanked them for their efforts to save his family’s lives.
“I‘d like to give a heartfelt thank you to the first responders who found an unimaginable scene that night,” he said.
“If it was not for those responders, I would not have been here today.”
Kyah’s boyfriend Kane Symons, a footballer from Tasmania, was also killed in the crash.
Nadene’s older sister Helen recalled seeing the young couple together for the first time and said their love resembled that of her parents.
“I was amazed at the love they had for each other and they reminded me of her parents,” she said.
Hundreds of loved ones – including many who attended the wedding – gathered at the Singleton Roosters ground ahead of a celebration of life ceremony on Monday morning, while hundreds more watched a livestream from across the country.
It is the final service held in honour of the 10 crash victims.
“Standing here and looking out at all the red, the whites, and the Crows colours – how much love can two girls bring?” Nadene’s younger sister Leoni said.
“They’ve left a massive hole in our hearts.”
Her sisters remembered her as a “never leave anyone behind” kind of person, one that danced on tables at parties and would sing happy birthday over the phone to loved ones back home each year without fail.
The McBride women have been remembered as a cornerstone of the local sporting community, a legacy that has borne hundreds of tributes from members of the national AFL community.
Guests were asked to wear team colours in honour of the two sporting clubs the mother and daughter poured their heart and soul into over the years – the Singleton Roosters and the Adelaide Crows.
The McBrides hail from the small South Australian town of Leigh Creek and made the move to Singleton with their only daughter Kyah in 2011.
Almost 500 people viewed the livestream of the service.
In lieu of flowers, guests are encouraged to make a donation to the Hunter Valley Bus Tragedy Fund that has already raised more than $1m to provide support to the victims and families of the crash.
Husband and wife Andrew and Lynan Scott, Zach Bray, Dr Rebecca Mullen, Angus Craig, Tori Cowburn and Darcy Bulman were also killed during the crash.
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