Nine months after Damien Little killed himself and their two sons, Melissa Little tells of how she's survived.

In January, Damien Little put his sons, four-year-old Koda and nine-month-old Hunter in his car.

He drove to McDonalds in his town of Port Lincoln in South Australia and ordered himself a takeaway coffee, before he shot each of his boys with his rifle and plunged his white station wagon at high speed off Brennan’s Wharf, plunging into up to 30 metres of water.

His actions shocked the nation and started a national conversation about mental health.

As the nation mourned and questioned just how such a thing could happen, thoughts lay with Melissa Little, the mother left behind to deal with her own immeasurable grief.

Mrs Little, 30, has now revealed how she has survived the past nine months and what got her through saying the events in January left her “broken hearted”.

Hunter and Koda. Via Kokoda for Koda.

She has released a statement to The Advertiser saying: “The loss of my children … and my husband Damien, has left me with only precious memories to hold. No matter how I chose to deal with my grief, not a single day goes by without my boys in my thoughts.

“It would be really easy to be consumed with the tragic story and the questions of why and how. But these are questions that no one can answer nor understand.”

Damien Little killed his two sons in January this year.

An ongoing coronial inquiry into the deaths of Damien and his two sons is examining issues including domestic violence and mental health.

She says: “The past devastatingly cannot be changed. Now I have to cherish the good memories that were had and continue taking small steps forward in their memory.”

But Mrs Little says she “had to face the world again” and determined to carry on, she has returned to work as an early childhood teacher and turned to writing – penning a children’s book about grief that she hopes to publish.

 "Always having my three boys in my heart." Via Kokoda for Koda.

And in her greatest achievement since her sons were taken from her she has walked the Kokoda Track, in memory of her son, Koka who was named after Kokoda.

“One day at a time, I tried to find strength to rebuild my life – always having my three boys in my heart. I searched for a challenge or something to motivate me to honour them … that was Kokoda.”

“Walking the Kokoda required commitment and focus and it was this that kept me going through the first half of this year. When everything seemed so lost, I felt I still had a purpose; a purpose that somehow still included my family.”

“I felt a strong presence of my boys, they were there with me on the track, which got my though each day. My precious boy Hunter never got the opportunity to take his first steps so I continued to take small steps forward for him.”

This week Mrs Little has announced that she will walk the track again next year in order to raise funds for the children’s book she wrote.

The book aims to help other children deal with grief, inspired by the struggle she saw in friends of Koda’s.

“I watched my son Koda’s friends try to understand and come to terms with the fact that their friend was no longer here”. She says it has “very personal memories” and she hopes it will help others.

She says that many have been left with “holes in our hearts” because of this tragedy.

“This is my way of helping others because something good has to come from something so terrible.”

You can follow her Facebook page here.