You were a shining star in my life from the day you were born. I felt so blessed to have a wonderful boy and a lovely little girl. You were always such a joyous and happy little being to everyone who knew you. You were always singing and full of life.

As a little girl you loved to dress up and perform and you took your violin studies and stage performances very seriously. These were your two great passions to follow in your life: music and singing. You loved us all with such generosity of spirit.

As you grew into a lovely young woman and commenced your university and singing studies we watched a caring, compassionate and intelligent young woman emerge. Choosing to complete a double Arts/ Law degree in French, Sociology and Development studies (to be able to help those in the third world less fortunate than those of the rich nations) and Law. You were nearly there with just two semesters to finish your Law subjects.

You were discovering your many musical, stage and singing talents. Having prior to university, successfully studied drama in High School and College, you recently decided to return to these studies on completion of your Arts/Law degree. Your dream was to be an Opera Singer.

In Lyon you had started, along with your law studies, singing lessons with some excellent teachers in Lyon and you were very excited discovering and learning essential vocal technique and the capacities of your beautiful voice. Although you only arrived in Lyon on 4th January, 2008 and left us all on 4th March, 2008, you felt completely at home here and loved this city and its people so much. You were named after the brave and strong French Resistance fighter Odette Sanson and attended the Jean Moulin, Lyon III University. Jean Moulin is of course revered as the leader of the French Resistance, and Lyon was a Resistance stronghold. There seemed to be many spiritual connections for you in this lovely place.

My dearest girl I don’t know how we are going to survive without your beautiful smile, joy and enthusiasm for life. You gave us such joy and love. I hope you are up among the stars and heavens smiling down upon us.  We will need a lot of help without you my sweet girl.

I shall try to sing from the depths of my soul for you every day.

Thank you for giving us 24 amazing and loving years.

At the start though I would like to acknowledge the support we have had in recent weeks especially from Rona Hiam, Jill Langdale Smith, Tony and Liz, Andre and Madeleine, Janine, and my sister, Wendy who for the past ten days has been an angel. In Lyon we owe a lot to Isabel, Imogen, Emily, Jeremy, Sylvain and his mum Genevieve, the wonderful Tessa Adrian who is student coordinator at Lyon III, the Reverend Chris Martin, the British Consul Jeannie Labaye, and for our departure, Ruth Mahon from the Australian embassy.

We had a commemorative ceremony for Odette in Lyon on the 10th of March in a Chapel at the hospital where she died. It was a moving ceremony attended by about 50 people including Odette’s new friends and hospital staff and doctors. But the skies growled and the winds roared and reverberated as the ceremony went on. It was as if the Gods were angry to have lost so senselessly someone so young and beautiful. Continuing this theme, allow me the indulgence to rage at the skies for a short time.

Jill and I flew to Lyon on the 19th of February a couple of days after Odette was admitted to hospital. Trystan joined us not long after. 

On the 3rd of March we were told by the doctors at the hospital she was on a good recovery path and she would be out in 2-3 weeks and able to stay on to complete her semester exchange. Twelve hours later she died. Suddenly and unexpectedly.

The doctors are bewildered, and the investigations are so far inconclusive. Indeed we are advised we may never know the cause of her death. We believed and continue to believe she was being cared for in a good health system, but we struggle to come to terms with the nonsense… the absurdity…. the impossibility of what has happened.

We know we are not alone in facing sudden death, and our hearts go out to others who have faced similar situations.

But we struggle with the words and metaphors to make sense of what has happened and to draw lessons from her death…. a rare occurrence… one in a thousand … one in x thousand … an exceptional medical case…. struck by lightning… hit by a bus.

But it has happened and a young and promising life has been cut tragically short.

As time goes on we will be able to take pride and solace in what Odette achieved in her life.

Someone wrote to us saying Odette had lived her dream in the short time she had available to her. Indeed the last 3 to 4 months of Odette’s life were a special period of achievement, adventure and happiness.

• She completed the first leg of her combined Arts law degree in November.
• She delighted everyone who saw her with her singing and acting in the Street Theatre production of The Kelly Women in December
• She lived at home again for a couple of months saving for her trip, and sang in a memorable Carols night
• She had a wonderful family week at Mollymook Beach, over Christmas which included Trys and Beth who were back from the US
• She had “au revoir” parties with her friends
• She stayed with Fe in Kuala Lumpur en route to Europe
• She set up a new life in Lyon and made new friends through the international program at the Lyon III University
• She began taking lessons from teachers attached to The Lyon Opera,  and was making rapid progress with her voice.
• She even sang one night at Lyon’s leading jazz club.
• She loved Lyon. A postcard in early February to her Aunt and Uncle said

“Lyon is beyond any of my wildest expectations. I feel so happy to wake to this dream every day. Found great penthouse apartment, friends, cheese, wine, and a reasonable French accent and the opera. I’m thinking of migrating here next year . So get yourselves over here and let me make you some crepes. Lots of love Odette” .

• It was indeed a nice apartment and we agree with her comments about her friends. We got to know them during our time in Lyon. They are lovely young people and you will hear from them later in the service.

Indeed our 24 years with Odette are all years to cherish. Odette had a great capacity for love and friendship and we feel privileged to be a special part of that. The closeness of her relationship with Jill is revealed something she said to the nurses in Lyon, “my mum is my best friend”.

For my part my relationship with Odette has always been special. It has been a joy for the past 24 years to have had such a strong uncomplicated, reciprocated loving relationship with my daughter. I have been blessed.

Odette has also always been close to her big brother and proud of his academic achievements and his marriage to the wonderful Beth.  We were lucky to be all together at Christmas.  Jill, Trystan and I were privileged to be with Odette during her last days.

Odette, Odette, Odette. Her gutsy laugh, her wise insights, her principles, her common sense, her talents. In a way she was the best of both of her parents and better in many ways - as a linguist, as a violinist, as someone who could talk to people of all stations with ease and grace, as a raconteur, as someone with a special stage presence. She was principled, responsible; she was a good person.

One of the nice things about Odette growing up in Canberra was that we got to meet many of her friends, She has always been good at building friendships and networks, and we got to meet through her a number of young people who are already beginning to make their marks in life - as musicians, as actors, as teachers, as academics, as designers, as volunteer workers in aboriginal communities and overseas aid missions, as idealistic lawyers, economists. So many great young people. Many of them are here today. The kind of people, like Odette, that you feel could trust the future with.

The future has a sad and empty ring for us today, but it shouldn’t. Odette wouldn’t want that. We want to draw what good we can out of Odette’s death. We will strive to draw any lessons that can be learned. We are already thinking about things that can be done in her name and that can stand as her legacy.

Odette’s life was a life lost at the cusp. We cannot know where her life would have led or what she might have achieved . But we do know for sure - as do those knew her know - that she would have made the world a more caring, joyful and better place. Perhaps that is the challenge for those who knew and loved her. To draw on their memories of her, of her values and what she stood for and help make the world a better place.

Odette had an incredibly generous spirit. Nothing was ever too much for Detts, she was always there and in the end I always thought she'd be there, which makes it all the more incomprehensible that she's gone. She put everyone ahead of herself, and made everyone around her feel special. She was also extremely trusting in people. Allow me to relate a story I'm somewhat ashamed of here. When I was a little tyke of around 9 (and she was a littler one at 4), I concocted an evil big brother scheme to catch her off guard, and earn some currency to barter for watching Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles rather than My Little Pony. I surreptitiously set up a tape recorder in a room in the house, went in there with her and started to recount some of the swear words I knew. I then asked her what swear words she knew and sneakily set off the tape recorder. She dutifully listed every swear and bad word she'd ever heard and gave me the cold hard evidence. I still to this day feel bad about this debacle, but Odette was generous enough, as always, to quickly forgive and forget.

Odette, thank you very much for giving so much light whenever you were around. You always gave out more than you received in return. You inspire me to give more of myself than I'd ever expect to receive.

Odette possessed an unrivalled joie de vivre, that seemed to come from wisdom learned over many more than 24 years. Odette understood that life was short and sometimes very unfair, and thereby sought to live every second of every day. Odette also understood that joy in life is most easily achieved through sharing with family and friends, and in bringing people together. When Odette was around experiences would get richer and meaningful, and somehow they would end up more 'fun' (and I don't think there's a better word here). Odette sang, she danced, and loved more than anything to bring people happiness. Another story: I was sitting at my desk reading through my 200th email for that day around a year ago when a new message appeared from Detts entitled "living vicariously", it read:

"Heya bro, So the purpose of this email is to convince you to buy tickets to Arcade Fire - they are probably Odette's number one band - and the rumours of them coming to Australia sadly seem to be unfounded... So after getting really excited and then horribly disappointed- I decided to try and live vicariously through you guys - they are going to be playing in on the 2nd of June in Berkeley (and according to their websites it seems they are not sold out.) If I could go I sure as hell would. In fact I'd probably run across a really busy road covered in glass barefoot, or go without avocado for a year. That's how serious I am. So if you have the time (which I doubt you do) you should check them out".

When I told her we'd got tickets she said she had "goose-bumps of happiness". We lived vicariously for Detts and had an amazing time, thought heavily of Detts in an attempt to try and bring her there with us, and sent her back a tour poster to complete our living vicariously. I know now that whenever I experience something as happy and amazing as this again I will once again think hard of Detts and try to summon her with me, and share some of the joy.

Odette, thank you for sharing the joy of life with us. You brought light into some of the darkest days, and we miss you terribly today. You inspire me to live my life more fully and brighten the lives of others.

Odette dared to dream for both herself and society. She was also courageous enough to try and live her dreams. Rather than spending time worrying too much about something, she'd jump right in and see what happened. This let her accomplish a huge amount in the all-too-short period of time she was afforded, and saw her contribute much to the world around her. I was always in awe of her travelling overseas to shoot for her dreams. It takes a lot of guts to travel the world on your own and reach out, and she had the mettle to step back from the daily grind and shoot for what she wanted. Whatever random act of god that befell you in Lyon could potentially have happened anywhere in the world, but you spread your wings before you were struck down.

I was and am inspired by your tenacity Odette, and while I am devastated to not be able to see you continue to live out your dreams, I am incredibly proud of all you accomplished. You inspire me to dream, and to have courage to chase my dreams.

Odette believed in a better world, and believed we could make changes to the world that we wanted to see. While others see a world that is too dogged to change, she saw a world of opportunity for change. She held strong beliefs of social equity, that stretched to everything from donating heavily to homeless people in San Francisco, to widely publicising the plight of aborigines to all those around her in Lyon. Indeed Lyonnais including bank tellers, bakers and cafe workers there know full well the importance of the reconciliation movement to Odette.

Odette I feel privileged to have had the good fortune to have had a sister with vision such as you. You inspire me to believe and work towards a better and happier world.

While there's no clear cut answer to where Odette has gone now, she maintains a presence in all of us, and as such her "essence" for want of a better word continues to live on through us. I'd like to ask everyone to ponder what she meant to you, and drive some change that she may have wanted to see, no matter how big or small. Give a stranger a smile, sing a tune, tell those around you how much you love them, and above all dream and live your dreams. So long as we can do this Odette's legacy lives on in some way, and maybe, just maybe, we can take a glitter of hope from this incomprehensible tragedy.

Odette, my beautiful little sis -- it's an impossible ask to say goodbye to you -- your love, your dreams, and your unbounded but somewhat untapped potential. I can but stay hopeful that you and your dreams will live on, through all of us, for all time.

Sweet dreams darling Detts.