In the glittering sun of a spring morning on Bondi Beach, 24-year-old Rae Milton is radiantly pregnant. “Rae’s baby is due in three weeks and that’s brought a lot of love to our family,” says Tia Byron on the imminent birth of her first grandchild.

Tia’s husband, David Byron, adds: “She’s brought an energy into our family that we need.”

Mr Byron is a founding member of the Bondi Longboard Club. To him, the Sydney beach-side suburb is more than a glamorous icon, it’s a neighborhood and a community. It’s where he grew up and where he taught his son, Jared (Rae’s partner), and his daughter, Chloe, to surf.

“Chloe was a great little surfer,” Mr Byron said yesterday. “We were all inaugural members (of the club): Jared, Chloe and myself. It’s a lot easier for kids to ride longboards, isn’t it?” He pauses and the words dry in his throat.

Chloe died in the 2002 Bali bombings, with the tragedy of her loss only heightened by the painful twist of fate in the events: Chloe and her friends, finding their flight home overbooked, were given a free night in a Kuta hotel, allowing Chloe to celebrate a friend’s birthday that evening at the Sari Club. She was 15 years old.

In an attempt to help reconcile their loss, Mr Byron has for the past four years organized the Chloe Byron Memorial Longboard Championship, a surf contest, family day and fundraiser for the Homicide Victims Support Group. It will be held tomorrow from 7am at Bondi Beach.

Such charities have proved an invaluable lifeline to the Byron family, especially David, who admits to having been suicidal after his daughter’s death. He is currently attending group therapy sessions, sponsored by the South Sydney Juniors Rugby League Club, together with local Bali survivors and others close to victims of homicide.

“As good as that is, it’s a bit distressing that the Government or the Health Department don’t weigh in with anything,” Mr Byron said.

“It’s as if they’ve all of a sudden forgotten us and people who suffer from the trauma of homicide. Without it (therapy) I’d be dead, mate. That’s honest.”

Mr Byron is keen to emphasise that the longboard championship is “a day of peace and love, a day of Aloha”. But the imminent executions of the bombers responsible for his daughter’s death cast an inevitable cloud.

After six years, what are Mr Byron’s feelings towards the men who await death by firing squad?

“The Australian, Christian side of me says, ‘Forgive them because they’ve been used as a tool’. But the father in me says, ‘I’d take their life in a blink of an eye’. I’m a father and I haven’t grown that much internally to forgive. I wish I could but they murdered my little girl and that’s intolerable.”

It’s a difficult subject for Tia Byron, too, but she lacks her husband’s still-palpable rage. “Honestly, it makes no difference to me. I don’t think about them any more and it will make no difference to our life now, whatever happens to them.”

Written by Brendan Shanahan
Published on The Australian – theaustralian.news.com.au