Speaking from the Craig family home in Sanctuary Point, on the NSW South Coast, Angus’s older sister Georgia said he was a special man.
“He’s collected really close friends his entire life because he has this special way about him of opening up and being so genuine and honest,” Georgia said.
His sister recounted the harrowing hours the family spent in the aftermath of the crash, which took the lives of 10 people in one of the worst NSW road accidents in recent history, as they prayed to hear news that he had survived.
“I spoke to my dad on the phone and he said, ‘There’s not many times that you wish your son is seriously injured and in hospital in surgery’,” Georgia said.
“‘This is the time I’m hoping he is’ — but he wasn’t.”
Angus, who was working in the coal mines of Central Queensland at the time of his death, spent his first years out of university in Singleton, where he lived with groom Mitch Gaffney, whose wedding he had attended on the day of the accident.
Last month, Angus moved out of Georgia’s home in Brisbane to be with his girlfriend, Bella, in what was to be a last goodbye for the brother and sister.
“He turned around (with) tears in his eyes, gave me a big hug, and (said), ‘Thank you so much. It’s been amazing living with you’,” Georgia said.
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Georgia said she had fond memories of her brother being “the dad of the group”.
“Growing up with my friends, he’d always be in the back seat, telling us to drive a bit slower, or saying, ‘Do you know this road rule?'”
Angus’s partner, Bella, who was on the bus with him at the time of the accident, was devastated but physically ok, Georgia said.
“She wanted me to pass on that Angus had the brightest personality and made people feel comfortable and included in any situation,” his sister said.
“He left a lot of broken hearts along the way.”
As family and friends fly in from all over the world to be with the Craig family, for Georgia, the thing that hurts most isn’t remembering everything he achieved, but realising everything he will now never experience.
Tragically, this includes the birth of Georgia’s first child – due in just two months’ time.
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