I was living in Sydney, Australia making my living at the markets selling second hand clothes and hand painted light globes. It was a fun filled,social time and i was living in a big house in the city with great friends. A friend moved out so we were looking for a new housemate. Zahia was 17 years old and was looking for positive changes in her life. (her nan later told me that Zahia thought i was fabulous!) She was a friend of a friend and i had met her parents and really hit it off with them too. Zahia moved in and it was amongst excitement and positivity for the future as she had been involved with a guy and drugs and was really trying to change her life for the better.
She was a lovely sweet girl and we started to get to know each other a little as she was doing some work for me,helping me to paint my light bulbs.She seemed happy. 2 weeks after she moved in Zahia didn’t come down in the morning. We thought it was strange and then her work called to say she hadn’t turned up.I knew she was in,as i had said goodnight to her the night before and she had told me that she loved me. My flatmate and best friend Tamara and i thought we should check on her,but it was with great reluctancy that we climbed the stairs. (I think both of us could feel something was not right). When we went in Zahia was in bed but it was immediately apparent that she was no longer of this world. It was very shocking and none of us said anything as we waited for the police. They arrived and it was then decided that as i knew Zahia’s mum that the news would be best coming from me. I went to her mums workplace and somehow told her that we had lost Zahia. I was just numb. She had died from a methadone overdose.
I was just at the end of a week long meditation workshop,which i then did again a week later.The teacher and the meditation practise really helped me through such an intense time and also spending time with Zahia’s parents. Soon after Zahia’s death,i was at the cemetery where she is buried (her grave is beautiful and was decorated by her parents and all her friends)with her best friend Bindia. It was nightime and we were firetwirling and listening to music “dead can dance” on a stereo we had taken there. A man walking in the cemetery stopped to say hello to us. That is when we all noticed something in the sky.




