A few years ago I had a great friend named Catherine Smith. We met through TAFE, whilst studying Beauty Therapy... for the first few months we just made idle chit chat with one another, until she invited us all to a Bollywood night being held near her - I was the only one who put my hand up to go. From then on, we were virtually inseparable. We spent nearly every night together - drinking, partying, driving, or just chilling out at each others home.
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| Smithy in her Bollywood outfit |
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| Smithy and myself drinking Red Rockets at Bollywood night. |
Smithy's family invited me to spend New Years eve with them, which then proceeded to extend over a few days - and we all had a grand time. We also took couple weeks holiday to the Gold Coast, were we acted like touristy fools.
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| Pretending to be some more statues in Surfers Paradise |
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| Surfers Paradise Chair |
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| New Years Eve - Smithy, Stripper, Chantal |
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| Mucking around in our hotel, Gold Coast |
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| Cavill Ave, Gold Coast - New Years Eve |
Over time we started helping one another with our personal problems, such as my alcoholism at the time. As such, I moved to Brisbane to create a new alcohol free environment for myself - and she was one of the select few that I chose to still have involved in my life.
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| Mekyna, Chantal and Smithy - my moving away party |
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| Smithy, Chantal and Mekyna ready for a night out |
After a few months of struggling to see each others, thanks to the 2.5-3 hr drive I had placed between us due to the move... I got an odd call from her. I don't know what it was about this particular call... but it irked me. Smithy phoned to ask if I could drive up to visit her and a large party she had decided to throw. Nothing odd about that... it was just... her voice, it seemed unusual. I tried to forget about it, and planned to take the night off work to visit her.
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| Night out at Mooloolaba. |
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| Returning from a night with a group of backpackers in Noosa. |
A few nights later I tried calling Smithy, but to no avail... it just kept ringing out. I tried again the next day, but this time it went straight to voice mail (highly unusual). I decided to give her a few days to return my call, before visiting.
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| Waiting for a bus to take us to where the sun shines best!! (The Beach!) |
After a week, or two, I finally called her land line - only to be surprised by her parents picking up the phone. (Not overly odd, as she lived with her parents - I just believed them to be out of town.) When I asked them if I could speak to Smithy, they were taken aback and asked me why I was asking them - as Smithy had told her parents that she was staying for the weekend with me.
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| Chilling at home. |
Smithy's parents and I did a little digging, and found that her mobile, wallet (with money) and overnight bags were still in her room - untouched. None of her other friends knew where she was, or had had any contact with her for several days prior. That was it... gone... with no sign of her whereabouts. Did she run away? Was she attacked? Did she get injured, and was sitting in a hospital with no ID?
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| Big Day Out |
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| Infinity, Gold Coast |
It has now been four and a half years since I last saw or heard from my beautiful friend Catherine Smith. I also lost contact with her parents over time, thanks to a whole range of circumstance. To this day, I still don't know what happened to this beautiful girl... and it's horrible not having any closure. It is a terrible feeling, not knowing where someone is - alive or dead - and I often have horrid dreams of her being stuck somewhere, with no one to help. I recently removed the last few photos of her, bar one, from my home - looking at them almost everyday, and feeling that heart ache, was becoming to overwhelming to bear.
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| Our Draculas photo is the last photo remaining on display. |
I can not imagine what it must be like for families, where this happens to their child or parent. Smithy was a wonderful, loving, caring and soulful individual... and I really hope (as horrible as this will sound) that this was just a really horrible, bitchy way of her cutting me from her life. However, I have had a few friends tell me that she is still on the missing persons list... I'm not so sure... to be honest, I just don't want to think about it anymore. To anyone who has ever experienced someone go missing from their lives, my heart goes out to you. Without closure, how can one move on?
With all the love I have to give,
Chantal
xx
PS - My apologies for any bad sentence structure etc. I didn't want to edit this piece, but just write from the heart. Xx
