Stuart Kelly funeral: Mourners farewell ‘happy, loveable boy’
HUNDREDS of mourners, including the PM, packed a small chapel at The King’s School yesterday to farewell Stuart Kelly, the brother of Thomas Kelly.
MADELEINE Kelly’s eyes welled up as she pleaded “please wait for me and take care of each other”.
With those words, the heartbroken sister farewelled her 18-year-old younger brother Stuart.
Only four years ago she was saying goodbye to her eldest brother Thomas at the same church.
He was also 18 at the time.
Stuart’s “brightness was snuffed out” when his brother was murdered in a one-punch attack in 2012. He took his own life on July 25.
Hundreds of mourners — including Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull — packed the small chapel at The King’s School to farewell the old boy who lived a “short but extraordinary life”.
“You brought a nation to its knees with your words, you made a positive change to a damaged culture that had been embedded in Australian society for so long, but more importantly you brought so much light to all our lives,” Madeleine, 21, said.
“To both of my brothers, my best friends, Thomas and Stuart: I will always love you and always remember the beautiful souls this world has lost. I refuse to believe that this is goodbye for us, but rather a, ‘see you later’; so please wait for me and take care of each other; until next time, your sister.”
Please wait for me, and take care of each other
Madeleine said her little brother “always picked up the pieces”. “I am forever in your debt,” she said. He loved the Parramatta Eels, crafting wood and mentoring. He had dreams of studying teaching.
Following Thomas’s death, the family formed a foundation and advocated for tightened lockout laws and the introduction of mandatory sentencing for violent alcohol-induced offenders.
But in a tragic twist, Stuart and the family had started receiving hate mail.
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Originally published as Stuart Kelly funeral: Mourners farewell ‘happy, loveable boy’
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