‘It doesn’t feel real’
SHOCK AT MUM TRAGEDY
THE heartbroken daughter of a 54-year-old woman who died in a single-vehicle crash in the state’s north says she was at work when she was called into her office to meet a police sergeant who told her the gut-wrenching news.
“I didn’t believe it, I said, ‘Nope’ and tried to walk out on them,” Kaysha Blundstone, daughter of Greens Beach woman Karen Quillerat, whose vehicle was discovered last Monday morning, told the Mercury.
“I then had to call my brother (Bowie). It still doesn’t feel real.”
Ms Blundstone said Karen was Tasmania’s “best mum and grandma” and shared an especially close bond with her grandson Noah.
“My son and her spent a lot of time together, they played golf, tennis, went to the beach,” Ms Blundstone said.
“She’d plan school holidays with him, have him for a week at a time, my husband and I would drop him off on a
Sunday and get him back on the following Friday.”
Karen had been a resident of Greens Beach, in the West Tamar, for about three years, Ms Blundstone said, and they were among the happiest years of the former Launceston resident’s life.
“The last couple years she spent (there) changed her life, she was so happy and out there and confident, she made so many friends down there,” Ms Blundstone said.
“There was a beautiful side of her that came out that had never been there before.
“She was always out and about, always with someone, whether it was at the pub, golf club or doing something with Noah.”
Ms Blundstone said it had been a dream of her mother’s for a long time to get out of the city.
“She wanted to be out in the natural, she was very against chemicals and things like that so she wanted to be out in the fresh air,” Ms Blundstone said.
Family friend Sam Gill is fundraising for Ms Quillerat’s
funeral costs, with her funeral date to be advised.
Ms Quillerat’s vehicle was discovered on Greens Beach
Rd about 8am by a passing motorist.
Tasmania Police Inspector Ruth Orr said the vehicle may have crashed hours before its discovery, with the sedan coming to rest in thick foliage.