Zara Davis

Zara was a truly wonderful person and we could not have wished for a better daughter. From the moment I held her after she was born, (by emergency caeser after putting Julie through 24 hours of labour) I had never felt such an overwhelming feeling of love… combined with a bit of fear about being responsible for her care, wellbeing and life. Once we got her home, through all of the late night feeding, disrupted sleep, nappy changing and food cleanup that feeling of love just continued to grow. Which it did throughout her life as she challenged boundaries and tried new things, with Julie always there supporting and guiding her. Zara had an amazing inquisitive mind right from the start and was always exploring and climbing from pretty much before she could walk. Once she could walk, the combination of walking and inquisitiveness did result in a few challenges, including when she set the kitchen on fire… coz she wondered what those knobs on the front of the stove did! Fortunately, we lived two blocks from a fire station so there was not too much damage & most importantly Julie, Zara & Owen got out of the house safely. Zara’s amazing mind continued to develop as we read to her and she ultimately became the voracious reader that she continued to be throughout her life. Her love of reading stood her in good stead when it came time to go to school where she excelled academically, partly due to her ability to read and retain information, but even more so because of her inquiring mind. From a very young age she asked really thoughtful & insightful questions as she tried to figure out how the world and things in it worked. In addition to her academic ability Zara also had the creativity, discipline and desire to succeed not only in learning but also in so many different areas, be that her basketball, until she crossed over to the dark-side to play netball or her amazing sewing and cosplay creations, her baking, her piano playing, (which was sufficiently advanced that she used to play the national anthem at primary school assemblies) her drawing and her creative writing. She was truly creative. Whenever something captured her interest she threw herself into it including music where her tastes ranged from heavy metal to pop, K-Pop, 70’s to today and in the case of books and movies she really explored the characters, which also led to her writing lots of fan fiction. Probably her first obsession of this nature was Harry Potter, where she read all the books over a dozen times and could inform you, (and of course correct you) in relation to any facts. Then it was Star Wars, Marvel, Manga, Anime to name a few. Zara also was willing to explore lots of other activities, with a love of horses and horse riding, but also had a go and was good at snorkelling, scuba diving, motorbike riding. One of my favourite memories with Zara was in Fiji when she was just 7 years old and she and I went on an organised snorkelling tour. We entered the water from the shore but snorkelled over a km out to sea where we met the boat that picked us up. She was so relaxed and in her element exploring the coral, fish and other marine life and I was so proud. Zara also enjoyed camping and we had many wonderful easter camping trips with a group of friends in Melbourne and then other camping trips here in Qld. Zara loved animals and in particular her first dog Bella, the cats Quin & Loki and the twins, Otis and Echo. She was particularly attached to Bella, whom she helped nurse through two hip operations. Zara also loved Halloween and would create characters and costumes and decorate the house and hold parties. She also loved Christmas and would take charge of the Christmas tree and decorations. Another really fond memory and tradition was that she would put on a BluRay of the Nutcracker ballet while she decorated the Christmas tree. Zara and I would regularly go to the ballet and in particular an annual trip to see the Nutcracker was another special tradition that I got to share with her. Zara did have a go at dancing & ballet when she was very young, but fortunately, after a while she worked out it was not for her. Which was a relief, coz you don’t see many 6 foot tall, amazonian warrior princess roles in Ballet! Although it was unplanned, Julie and I were very blessed when Owen came along 11 months and 1 week after Zara. They were Irish twins and the same age for 3 weeks each year. The closeness in age helped to ensure that Owen and Zara have always been great friends and great supports for each other. Zara in particular embraced the big sister role and we, (well mainly Julie) had to stop her speaking for Owen so that Owen could actually find his own voice. But they really have been close, supportive and protective of each other and had such a beautiful relationship. That extended through their friendship groups where they have always enjoyed participating in a range of games and activities together with each other’s friends. It was wonderful going back through photos and seeing so many great times and moments that Zara & Owen shared, they genuinely were best friends as well as siblings. Zara’s academic success continued into high school where she continued to average As and was fortunate to have some wonderful teachers who continued to support and inspire her. Her skills in netball also continued to improve through her involvement in the Mooloolaba Reds, which was a really great supportive family-based club. Zara went on to umpire and coach with them, particularly once she was no longer able to play. Zara also worked a range of part time roles starting in a café in Mooloolaba before moving to Peter Alexander & then the Pop-up store that she loved working at, selling, what I inappropriately referred to as Nerd stuff. She also had some time helping the Infocus team, where she once again did an excellent job. I was hoping to attract her to do more work with Infocus but sadly the nerd store was more interesting to her than financial services. Very strange! All in all, Zara was simply a wonderful person, smart, inquisitive interested in the world and in caring for her friends and family. She was looking forward to a full and fabulous life where she would build a house that had to have a library with floor to ceiling shelves on every wall and a ladder on a slide to get to the top shelves, so she had somewhere for all her books. It was shortly after Zara’s 16th birthday that she was diagnosed with cancer the first time. This saw her undergo a seriously intensive series of treatments including Chemo and radiation. It was really hard to watch the effects of the treatment on her, but she was incredibly stoic and didn’t complain or moan about “Why me”. We all thought she had beaten it and she was in remission for a good 9 months, but it came back, leading to her second round of intensive treatment, which did even more harm to her overall health. Apart from sapping her energy, she had permanent damage to her lung function as a result of the radiation. But once again she didn’t complain and we celebrated her being in remission for a second time. It is really important to note that while all this sarcoma shit was going on, she finished year 11, graduated her Queensland Certificate of Education and made it into university. Once again, a sign of the depth of character and determination that she had. Unfortunately, the second round of remission only lasted a few months before the cancer was back and we received the devastating news that she was out of treatment options, apart from a maintenance program of oral chemo that should stop the tumours from spreading. We had expected the oral chemo to continue working for an extended period of time, potentially years, but knew it would eventually lose its efficacy. Sadly, that happened much, much quicker than we thought and the cancer spread so rapidly that in the end we lost her before she reached her 20th birthday. Once the cancer spread this last time, Zara’s quality of life diminished rapidly and she was regularly in and out of hospital. But again, in a testament to her determination, she continued her Uni studies and completed her last exams only a few weeks prior to her passing, getting a High Distinction. Just awesome! Her last days were spent surrounded by friends and family and her last moments were being cuddled by Julie and I, who could not have loved her any more. She was finally in peace after nearly 4 years of pain. Zara was a remarkable young lady who touched many lives during her short time on this earth. She was intelligent, caring, talented, creative, polite, cheeky and funny. It was an absolute privilege to be her father and for Julie to be her mother and she provided us with the greatest joy and pride as Julie and I worked together to help her grow into the absolutely awesome young lady she became. In the end, our beautiful angel is gone, there’s a hole in our hearts that will never heal, and the world is a poorer place for her passing. But Zara knew that there was far more to her than the body that succumbed to the cancer and wherever she is now, she will continue to be a creative and positive force to be reckoned with.