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Amy ‘Dolly’ Everett was a 14-year-old girl when she ended her life in the first few days of 2018. Prior to her death, the teenager, from Australia’s Northern Territory, had been relentlessly cyberbullied.
Before she passed, Dolly left a drawing with the simple words: “Speak, even if your voice shakes.”
Those six words sent shivers down the spines of Australians as her devastating death stunned the nation – making headlines for weeks and months after.
Two years on from the tragedy, Kate tells Mamamia of the grief her family continues to endure and how they remain determined to shine a light on the severe impacts of bullying.
“People often ask us, ‘how do you cope? We say, ‘how can you not cope?'”
Kate says she and her husband Tick Everett “have learnt that grief is not linear nor is it predictable”.
“In the early days we made a promise to each other to take each day as it comes, with no expectation other than to make it through,” she says.
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My heart breaks for Dolly and her family. What they are saying about kindness and empathy is paramount to a better society all round. Bullying rears it head is so many ways, with young people everywhere needing to manage it on a daily basis. More accountability on behalf of parents, peers etc. It's about listening to that little voice when something isn't quite right ... standing up and saying "stop that", or "that's not cool". My son has been the victim of some serious vindictive behaviour from girls, and strangely the parents believe their daughters to be innocent little angels. Lets wake up and accept that, in general, the age of innocence is lost as soon as devices are in their hands. What you say, do, gossip about and do to another human being NEEDS an empathetic view. It should be the only way we interact with each other. I commend you on all that your are doing Kate and family. Inspirational.