Turning tragedy into purpose

When Michelle Moriarty's partner died shockingly young, he left her with two small children and an enormous hole in her life. Yet the determined social worker found a way to help not just herself, but many others left floundering in grief.

- JENNY BROWN

Grief struck like a tidal wave when Michelle Moriarty’s fit, young partner suddenly collapsed and died of heart failure one day. It was so unexpected, so traumatic to lose her special person and abruptly become a widow, aged just 38. Everything changed with that one hammer blow. The future the couple had planned was gone forever. Sadly, they’d never again catch fish together, camp under starry outback skies, or watch dolphins play in the wide blue Indian Ocean.

Five years down the track, Michelle is slowly rebuilding her life and recovering her sense of self. What’s more, the courageous mother-of-two is now helping others do the same through her award-winning Grief Connect network. But she admits everything has been a struggle.

“It was horrendous,” says Michelle, who was left to raise two little boys – then only two and six years old – in coastal Bunbury, WA. “From that point, every aspect of my life changed.”

Nathan Johnston, her late de facto, left a giant void with his premature passing in June 2018, aged 38. A bear of a man, standing 1.94 metres tall, the fly in/fly out miner doted on his son and stepson, always enjoyed a joke and “lit up every room” with his happy-go-lucky presence.

“He was a big, silly kind of dad, a real cuddler, very affectionate,” recalls Michelle, who first met Nathan while they were still teenagers. “He was just this playful, jolly guy.”

Travelling overseas separately in their twenties, they split up. “I was devastated and lived in London for four years,” says Michelle. But they reconnected back home in their thirties.