Wednesday, 4 July, 2018
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■ Drawn together in the aftermath of a road death, these two are now ...
Friends for life By Garry Howe Sitting alone in a Berwick coffee shop, Kay Morland looks anxiously at her watch. It has taken months to set up this meeting and as the minutes pass the designated hour, Kay fears there may be cold feet and a no-show. Then a 20-year-old appears, almost dwarfed by a huge bunch of tulips. Kay cries. They hug. Then he cries as well. The 20-year-old is Brodie Lynch, the driver of the car that hit and killed Kay’s husband Mick Morland as he crossed the Princes Highway in Berwick on a cold Saturday night in June last year. That emotional first meeting - instigated by Kay - was last October and this unlikely alliance born out of tragedy has since blossomed. Police quickly established that Brodie - on his way from his Beaconsfield home to K-Mart at Fountain Gate with girlfriend Taleesha Savage - was not at fault. Kay was at home watching the footy that Saturday, 24 June, waiting for Mick to return from his nightly walk. He was in familiar territory, not far from their Berwick home. Mick was crossing the highway just up from the entrance to Wilson Botanic Park. He ducked around the back of a car turning right into Coniston Avenue and straight into the path of Brodie’s car. A lot of people know Mick, by virtue of his community work and two decades as councillor and former mayor of the City of Casey, and the accident scene was no exception. Equally well-known local copper Pat McGavigan was one of the first on the scene. Worried that he had been gone so long, Kay had left several messages on Mick’s phone; the last to the effect that if he wasn’t home soon she would call the police. Not long after, the police were at the door. When Pat said to Kay that Mick didn’t make it, she initially thought he didn’t make it home; that he must have been taken to hospital. As the grim reality started to sink in, Kay’s mind began to wander from her own loss and grief. “One of my first thoughts was ‘Oh my God, what about the driver?’,” Kay said.
Mick Morland.
Kay Morland and Brodie Lynch have connected since the accident that claimed the life of Kay's husband Mick Morland in June last year. “Pat had said that there was no evidence the driver was at fault. I have a grandson who was 17 at the time and I got to thinking that if that happened to Jacob I would be devastated. “It was no-one’s fault. This terrible thing happened to Brodie as much as it happened to anyone in our family.” Kay says her effort to reach out to Brodie
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months and would occasionally ask if there was any progress. Eventually she decided to write a letter. “I was conscious that the longer it went what I had to say would have less impact,” Kay said. “I was happy for the police to read the letter, just to make sure there was nothing wrong in there.” Continued on Page 4
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was to ensure he was doing okay and didn’t become another victim of the accident. She made the first approach, through Pat McGavigan, within the first few days. The policeman was a little taken aback by the request, saying it was highly irregular, but that he would make inquiries. Kay saw a bit of Pat over the next weeks and
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