latest read: Steve & Me by Terri Irwin

When I came back from Melbourne at the end of 2001, it felt like leaving a good friend and there is a constant ache in my heart whenever I think of Melbourne and that ache remains till this day.

So trying to hold on to something Australian, I welcomed this man with a thick Aussie accent who had such great enthusiasm. He was the Crocodile Hunter. He was Steve Irwin.

I did not actually follow his adventures but it was such a comfort that whenever I missed Australia, I knew which channel to get him. He brought to the screen what to me Australia and Australian people are all about. They are passionate and proud people, proud to be Australian.

Whenever I think of Steve, there are two phrases that come to mind –

“CRIKEY!”

“What a BEAUTIE!”

He was so full of life and he talks about nature so passionately. And a person with such great passion always attracts me.

His sudden passing was a blow!

I remember hearing about it in the news and something in me just did not believe, cannot believe what has happened.
This man who was a great advocate of nature died in the hands of nature.
How ironic, I thought.

While browsing Kinokuniya, I saw this book on the shelves - Steve in his khaki shirt and shorts - and without even think, I grabbed it!

Finishing the book as a before-bed reading was a bad idea. I couldn’t sleep after that.

I was in tears.

Closing the book, I stared into space for a few minutes, totally silent, holding on to the book, trying to digest what I’ve just read, taking it all in.

This book describes in great detail what Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter, is all about and what a man!

Steve & Me was written by Terri, Steve’s wife. To see things from her point of view, I regard Steve Irwin with greater respect now - what he was trying to achieve and his challenging journey to achieve it. He was extremely passionate about saving and preserving nature and he had great respect for everything in it.

But ultimately, this was a love story of a girl finding her soul mate, finding someone who shares her passion, someone who understands her, someone she trusts with her life, someone who completes her, someone she loves and lost.

Steve and Terri were like macaroni and cheese, like a song and a rhyme. They complemented each other and they were best when together.
The 15 years they spent together - their achievements, their ability to appreciate each other come what may, how happy they were with each other - were more than some people ever achieved in triple that.

How lucky they were to find each other.

I can’t imagine what Terri must be facing on a daily basis without her soul mate.

But what she wrote in this paragraph describes it beautifully:

I lay there while the clock ticked on. Here is another minute I have survived without Steve. I consoled myself with the thought that the clock was ticking for all of us. None of us could know when it was going to be our time. I resolved that I would celebrate the people who were still here and apply myself to the work that still had to be done. My resolution was all well and good, but what really sustained me during those dark, lonely hours of the night was another deeper, more persistent thought. With every tick of the clock, I was one moment closer to being with Steve again. As strong as Steve was in this life, I knew without a doubt that he would be a force to be reckoned with in the next.

Even typing this out, I’m teary-eyed.

Yes, with every tick of the clock, we are nearer and nearer to be with those we have lost.

More from her:

“… grief is your own process. You cannot compare your grief to anyone else’s. It is something that is uniquely yours.”

“Understanding that where there is love there is grief, and where there is life there is death, and that a person’s spirit and soul never die and that their love never ends..”

“When your hero dies, everything he stood for does not end. Everything he stood for must continue.”

“One crowded hour of glorious life is worth more than an age without a name. I had no regrets for Steve’s glorious life, and I know he couldn’t have lived any other way.”

“Steve lived everyday of his life doing what he loved, and he always said he would die defending wildlife.”

His death in the hands of nature was not ironic after all.
I believe he would not have it any other way.

Steve lived a short life but a full life indeed.

Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter - what a legacy he has left behind.

Good on ya mate!