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Friday 15th September - The Mercury

Moving day for family to a home Melanie helped build

By: ANGUS HOHENBOKEN

A MEMORIAL trust set up for the family of Mountain River mother-of-five Melanie Harris has raised a monumental $100,000 in less than six months.

Thanks to the tremendous show of community support, and additional donations of more than $40,000 in goods and services, her husband Daniel and their five children are set to move into their new home, which Melanie helped design.

Mrs Harris was just 29 when she died of Sudden Arrhythmia Death Syndrome— otherwise known as Sudden Adult Death Syndrome — in March this year.

Her death shocked the closeknit Huon Valley community and more than 1200 people attended her funeral.

The Melanie Harris Memorial Trust was established to help Mr Harris, who quit his job as a Telstra linesman to care for Breeanna, 10, Jordan, 8, Bronte, 7, Joel, 5, and Bella, who turns two on Sunday.

Mr Harris has been overwhelmed by the support of friends and family and the wider community.

‘‘It’s been unbelievable the help we’ve had from the community.

You just don’t realise the number of people out there who care.’’

The packing and unpacking for the family’s move this weekend will be minimal — they currently live in a shed just metres from their new house.

The Harris’ new sixbedroom home, which was designed and partially built by Melanie with her father John, will give the family some much needed space.

‘‘All the bad memories are sort of in the shed, it will be good to get over here,’’ Mr Harris said.

In October the children will be tested for SADS in Melbourne to determine whether they have inherited the condition.

Melanie Harris Memorial Trust founder Garry Willmott said when the trust’s goal of $300,000 was raised to pay off the family’s mortgage, the fund would continue to raise money for families in similar situations and to boost SADS awareness.

Please click below to download the Sunrise story on Melanie and the family.

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Please click below to download the A Current Affair story on Melanie and the family.

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Thats Life Magazine, WED 02 August 2006.

Life was near perfect for Daniel, Melanie and their five children. Then last March, fate stepped in…

As told to Sarah Veness

Daniel Harris, 29, Mountain River, Tas

There are certain people who stand out from the crowds.

Melanie Brown was one of them.

While the rest of us teenagers listened to rock bands, Melanie preferred the tunes of Slim Dusty.

‘He’s great’, she told me as we listened to records in her bedroom. ‘There’s so much character in his voice.’

Mel was loud and larger than life.

Everyone loved her. But no-one loved her as much as me. From the moment we first kissed at 14, we were inseparable.

I left school without finishing year 10 but I still hired a suit and posed for photos with Melanie before her school formal. ‘You look gorgeous,’ she said generously.

Then, at 18 Mel fell pregnant. It was a shock but we were thrilled.

I moved in with her parents John and Carol and when the time came I held Mel’s hand as our beautiful daughter Breanna came into the world.

Blonde with blue eyes, she was the image of her mum, and Mel took to motherhood like a duck to water.

‘Hello darling,’ she’d giggle, planting kisses on Breanna’s tummy. When Breanna was a few months old, we moved into a house that Mel’s dad had built for us next door. Soon our family had grown with the arrival of Jordan, then Bronte.

Finally, there was a bit of breathing space and we had time to get married. We tied the knot on February 19, 2000 and Melanie looked beautiful in a traditional long ivory dress.

Breanna and Bronte wore matching dresses while Jordan wore a little suite just like mine, it was a perfect day.

Not long after, Mel fell pregnant and gave birth to our second son, Joel.

One day, they all burst through the door laughing. ‘Mum drove round the roundabout twice,’ Breanna giggled.

After that, Mel did it all the time to make the kids laugh.

When she wasn’t annoying other drivers, Mel threw herself into the local community. She’s take the kids to the local pool or help out at the school.

As often as we could, we’d take family holidays or have days out. Mel knew exactly how to make our trips fun.

When Joel was three, Mel fell pregnant again. Beautiful little Bella arrived in September 2004.

‘We need a bigger house,’ Mel said, and she set about designing her dream home.

John agreed to help with the construction. We sold our house and the seven of us moved into a big shed while it was being built.

On March 19 this year Mel dropped me in Hobart for her brother Clinton’s bucks party. ‘See you later’, she said, kissing me goodbye.

About 11pm, John and I headed home.

‘Night mate,’ he said heading down to his house.

Through the glass door I could see Mel asleep on a mattress on the floor.

Gently, I tapped on the glass. She stirred and came to open the door.

‘How come you’re home so early?” she asked.

Before I could answer she suddenly fell forward and landed face down on the floor.

‘Mel!’ I called. ‘Are you okay?’

There was no response. Panicking, I crouched beside her. ‘Mel?’ I said more urgently. Then I realised she wasn’t breathing. Grabbing her arm, I discovered there was no pulse.

No, no… I thought, my heart thumping.

Mel was turning purple and there was no time to phone for help. I started doing CPR. ‘Jordan! Joel!' I shouted.

“Wake up!’

Breanna and Bronte were staying at their aunt’s house.

Finally the boys appeared bleary-eyed. ‘What’s Happening?’ Jordan asked, staring at Mel in horror.

‘Get your bike and go to Nan and Grandad’s for help,’ I told them.

Joel ran outside and got his bike. Within minutes, he was back with Mel’s parents. John threw himself into the CPR while Carol phoned for an ambulance.

‘Come on Mel,’ I begged.

The paramedics arrived half an hour later. ‘She’s not breathing,’ I told them. ‘Please help her.’

I worked with them trying to revive Mel for a further 30 minutes.

Finally, one turned to me,

‘I’m sorry, she’s gone,’ he said simply.

‘No,’ I sobbed in disbelief.

How could Mel be standing there talking to me one minute and then gone the next? People don’t just drop dead like that.

She was only 29.

For three hours, I lay by her side.

‘I love you Melanie,’ I wept inconsolably.

The girls were brought back to the house. All five children laid down with me to spend some last precious time with their beautiful mother.

‘Why is she cold?’ Joel asked, confused. ‘Will she be warm in heaven?’

‘Yes she will,’ I whispered.

I couldn’t bear the thought of seeing her body leave the house so, as the sun came up, I went to John and Carol’s and climbed into bed. I lay there, numb with shock. Nothing made sense.

Was it my fault? I wondered. Why didn’t the CPR work?

After a few hours, I pulled myself together. The kids needed me to be strong. ‘Hello guys,’ I said, pulling them into my arms.

Their five little faces looked as lost as I felt. ‘It’s going to be okay,’ I told them.

I was determined to make sure the kids said goodbye to their mum in the best way possible. The day before the funeral service, I arranged for Melanie’s coffin to be brought inot our new house.

As she was carried in, huge sobs racked my body. ‘It shouldn’t be like this’, I wept.

‘She should have walked into her dream house with me and the kids.’

We left the casket open so the children could place things inside for Mel Sobbing, I watched as they lined up with letters, photos and even tiny pebbles that were precious to them.

‘Bye Mum,’ they whispered in turn.

After that, armed with pens and crayons, we let them decorate the lid of the coffin with pictures and messages. Soon it was my turn. Taking a deep breath, I began to write.

“I’ll always love you Mel, and I promise I’ll be there for he kids. They’ll never forget you.”

The next day the hearse drove slowly around the roundabout twice on the way to the funeral.

‘Look, Mum’s going around twice again,’ the kids giggled through their tears.

Hundreds of people lined the streets to watch. More than 1200 people came to the funeral. I made a speech, then Breanna, 10, stepped up to the microphone, ‘Our mum was the best mum,; she began.

‘I’ll miss mum’s big cuddles and it’ll be hard doing my hair without any bumps.’ I swallowed the lump in my throat as I clutched Bronte’s hand.

‘I don’t want to grow up without my mum, but I know she’ll be with me everywhere I go and I can talk to her’, Breanna finished.

All around, people were sobbing. Then Bronte, six, stepped up. ‘I love my mum, she was cool,’ she said. ‘Mum loves roses. She loves to paint, She loves us…’

It was heartbreaking.

After the funeral, I some how summoned up the strength to carry on. I gave up work as a Telstra linesman to be at stay-at-home- dad to five grieving kids.

And it was tough. Little things like learning which clothes belonged to which child was difficult. I’d line the kids up on the sofa and try on sock after sock until I found the right ones.

‘There you go,’ I’d smile. I had to stay strong for the kids even though, sometimes it felt like I was dying inside.

One evening, we were watching a TV program when someone collapsed and was resuscitated with CPR. ‘Why couldn’t you save Mum like that?’ Joel asked. “Your mum was a lot more sick,’ I replied sadly.

Three weeks after the funeral, we got the autopsy results.

Melanie died from SADS – Sudden Arrhythmia Death Syndrome,’ I was told. It was hard to come to terms with the fact that something I’d never heard of had taken Melanie away.

From the moment she fell, Melanie had no pulse. There was nothing I could have done to save her.

As the weeks passed, I was overwhelmed by the compassion of the local community, not to mention our friends and family.

The six of us were never alone.

There was always someone willing to help. Local Businessmen railed together and set up the Melanie Harris Memorial Trust to raise money to help support us. ‘Thank you,’ I said, stunned when they told me.

I’d spent sleepless nights wondering how I was going to support the family, let alone pay the mortgage. ‘We were so touched by your story, they said.

‘We just want to help.’

They set a goal of raising $300,000.

Recently, they held a benefit concert. It was an amazing day – just the kind of day Mel would have loved.

Over 400 people turned up, raising $15,000. Now the total stands at $100,000.

Once they’ve reached enough to help us, they’re going to help other families who’ve lost someone through SADS. Now, we’re just taking each day as it comes.

The eldest Breanna, has tried to step into her mum’s role. But I don’t want that. She deserves the right to still be a kid. Jordan, eight, keeps everything inside but on the surface seems to be coping.

Timid little Bronte took it the hardest and seems lost without her mum. Joel’s Only five and doesn’t really understand that she’s gone. And then there’s 18 –month –old Bella. For the first few weeks she clung to me as if she was frightened I’d disappear too.

It breaks my heart that she won’t remember her special mum. But we have videos and photos and I promise to bring her mum alive for her.

As for me, with the support of friends, family and complete strangers, I’m just about coping. I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has offered their time, love, friendship and money to help me keep my precious family together. Now, thanks to John the local community, our house is nearly ready. And I’ve made a vow.

I’m going to fill that house with just as much love and warmth as Mel would have if she was still here.

Article and Photo thanks to That's Life Magazine

The Mercury, MON 19 June 2006, Front Page.

A magical day in memory of Melanie

By: KANE YOUNG

IT was just the type of day Melanie Harris loved to be part of.

There was fine food and wine, the sounds of top-class musicians and a large, friendly crowd enjoying an outing in a part of the world that Melanie loved so much.

Melanie, of Mountain River in the Huon Valley, died suddenly in March, aged 29, leaving husband Daniel to raise their five children, then aged between 18 months and 10.

And yesterday about 400 people attended a benefit concert at Home Hill, Ranelagh, raising more than $15,000 for the Melanie Harris Memorial Trust.

The trust, which was established to ease the financial pressure on Daniel and his family, has already raised nearly $80,000.

Daniel was overwhelmed by the turnout at the ‘‘Music For Melanie’’ concert, which he said his wife would have loved.

‘‘I sort of knew it was going to be a big day, but I didn’t realise it was going to be this good, with this many people here,’’ he said.

‘‘Melanie would be up the front dancing, enjoying herself.’’

An auction raised about $7000 for the trust, with items including a bottle of Home Hill wine signed by Michael Schumacher, a Lisbeth Driessen oil painting and a weekend for two at Cradle Mountain going under the hammer.

Daniel thanked all involved for their support since his wife’s death.

‘‘The moral support, the number of people who want to help — you don’t realise how many people are there for you until something like this happens,’’ he said.

The concert was the first of many events planned to raise money for the trust, which aims to eventually help other families in similar situations.

Article and Photo thanks to The Mercury Tasmania

The Mercury, Edition 1 - TUE 02 MAY 2006, Page 005

Community rallies to mother of all causes

By: SUE NEALES

WHEN any mother of five children dies, it is a massive loss.

But when that mother is vivacious Melanie Harris, of Mountain River in Tasmania's Huon Valley, who early in March died suddenly of unknown causes aged just 29, the gap left in her family and the community is even more tragic than usual.

All of her five children were younger than 11 -- the youngest, Bella, was just 18 months old.

The local community where Melanie grew up, married and had children, was equally devastated.

More than 1200 people attended her funeral.

The Mercury's personal columns were filled for days with death notices.

The young mother, who with her Huonville High School sweetheart Daniel Harris started their happy and boisterous family when she was just 19, had everything to live for.

The dream family home in the country that Melanie was helping her father, John Brown, build brick-by-brick was nearly finished.

The kids had all chosen their bedrooms and Melanie was painting them each in the children's favourite colours, while they all stayed out the back in a big shed.

With Melanie's parents, John and Carol Brown, living down the hill next door, and Daniel working for Telstra as a linesman and for the Tassal seafood company as a diver, life was busy, happy and good.

Until March 19, when Melanie died at home. Now the Harris and Brown families are struggling to cope.

First they are having to learn to do without their mother, wife and daughter -- the always-smiling Melanie with the loud laugh and happy smile, described by a friend as one of the ``funniest girls'' she had ever known.

The Huonville swimming pool where Melanie loved to hang out with her children in summer is silent, her netball team is devastated, and the hairdressing salon that she ``filled with fun'' is quieter than before.

The Huonville roundabout that ``Mel'' loved to drive around twice to annoy other drivers and to delight her children is back to normal, now just a poignant reminder to her four older children Breeanna, 10, Jordan, 8, Bronte, 6, and Joel, 5, on their way to school each day that their mother has truly gone.

The roundabout also played a central part in Melanie's funeral procession -- all 1200 mourners and even the hearse drove around it twice, in her honour.

And for Daniel, who has had to quit his job to look after his young family, the financial burden of having a new house to finish and a big mortgage to pay is just adding to his loss.

``It's hard,'' the quiet young father admitted yesterday, sitting outside the new house that Melanie designed and that her builder father John is now completing on his weekends.

``The community has been great. They've all been offering help, and it's nice to know that people are out there caring.

``But it's the kids -- Melanie put her life into those kids -- and they're not all going so well. One minute they'll seem all right, and the next moment they really aren't.''

To take some of the burden off Daniel, the local community is rapidly mustering support.

Local B&B operator Garry Willmott has banded together with the Browns and Huonville solicitors Baker, Tierney and Wilson to try to ease some of the financial stress on the Harris family.

The Melanie Harris Memorial Trust has been established, and $12,000 has already been donated.

Now other community events are planned, with the first a ``Music for Melanie'' concert at Home Hill near Ranelagh on June 18, featuring the internationally renowned Giant Hamsters, Kim Sellars, and Mel's uncle, guitarist Bob Brown, singing some of his niece's favourite Slim Dusty songs.

``I didn't know Melanie before she died, but the effect of her death on the local community has been so extraordinary that I knew we had to do something to help her young husband and kids,'' Mr Willmott said.

Her father John -- a local builder and fourth-generation Huon sawmiller who will help manage the Trust for his grandchildren -- is delighted and grateful at the show of support.

``The mortgage is the biggest thing. I think if Daniel knew that he didn't have to worry about the mortgage, it would make a huge difference,''

Mr Brown said yesterday through quiet tears.

Mr Willmott, who also runs a Sydney recruitment firm, said last night the community was hoping to raise $100,000 for the Trust. * To make donations or find out more information about the Melanie Harris Memorial Trust, call Mr Willmott on 0429 626 640), or Baker, Tierney and Wilson on 62 64 1055.

Article and Photo thanks to The Mercury Tasmania

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