It’s been one year since Tamworth environment officer Glen Turner was gunned down on a remote roadway near Moree.
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For those who loved him most, it’s been like a lifetime of agony.
But, while his family, wife Alison and their two young children Alexandra and Jack, are still trying to get used to what is the “new normal” the obvious spirit and generosity of Glen lives on – and is in fact flourishing.
How else do you describe or explain the spirit and the joy that is an inspiration from the pain and the sorrow.
To mark the anniversary of the ghastly death of the Office of Environment and Heritage staffer on July 29, 2014, Glen’s widow and family and friends have encouraged the rest of us to heal in a small but simple act of nurture.
As they did this week, when Alison and the kids planted a tree for Glen at their home at Dungowan, so they have asked those who share the sorrow or the sense of caring of Glen’s death and passing, to do the same.
It is surely a measure of the strength of Glen character’s and integrity, of his passion and love for those around him, for his workmates and friends, that their generosity of spirit has been on display as well, and mirrors the compassion he so obviously felt.
Old university mates, workplace friends and colleagues and family and friends, have lent a hand at the home as well – fixing up the household bits that would have been his normal routine, and even building some special places that Alison and those who loved him can relax near and reflect on his legacy.
It is a wider measure of his standing that a number of other significant and special events will mark Glen’s life too.
Newcastle University, his old alma mater, has established a scholarship in his honour. The International Ranger Federation has added his name to their roll of honour.
The NSW department where he spent so many years has also marked this anniversary on some personal and private notes.
This week the Turner family, and so many more, will share the sense of love for a man “who danced like no one was watching” and who “squeezed the marrow out of every day”.
Planting a tree just seems like the most natural thing to do, and the least we can do, even for those who didn’t know him.