She Told Me To Trust Her Then She Killed My Best Friend

When Jolene got into a car on new year’s eve with her mate Nathaniel, it was the beginning of a nightmare.

- Jenny Brown

Jolene Bounday recently got a new tattoo – the stark words ‘Beautiful Tragedy’ – inked on the back of her thighs.

It commemorates the senseless, stupid, high-speed car crash that robbed Jolene of her best friend Nathaniel Merritt-Price and changed her life forever on New Year’s Eve two years ago.

‘I got the tattoo “Beautiful Tragedy” because this is what I have become since the accident,’ the 20-year-old haltingly explains.

‘Even though I hate myself for the way I am, I have to start telling myself that I am still beautiful. But it was a tragic accident and I feel like I am a tragedy now.’

Suffering from permanent memory loss, Jolene can only recall dark glimpses of the 2015 smash that left her with severe brain and leg injuries, and broke her back in two places – but the mental scars, anxiety and depression are even worse.

In nightmares, she relives how her best friend Nathaniel begged driver Gemma Sargent to stop or slow down just before she lost control of the speeding vehicle.