FREEDOM AND A FUNERAL
PAUL WESTON EXCLUSIVE She’s almost home. But one of her first days back on the Gold Coast will be the saddest of her life
ONE of Schapelle Corby’s first heartbreaking duties back on the Gold Coast will be to spread the ashes of her father, who died while she languished in a Bali jail. Schapelle is due home this weekend, 12 years and seven months after she left on an illfated trip that changed her life. “We’ve got her dad’s ashes,” Schapelle’s mother Rosleigh Rose said. “When it’s the right time, we’re going to put his ashes where he wanted. We can’t do it without Schapelle.”
SCHAPELLE Corby will spread the ashes of her late father Michael and farewell him in one of the first emotional reunions planned by her family.
Mother Rosleigh Rose told the Bulletin the family had waited nine years since Michael’s death so Schapelle could help scatter his ashes at a secret location.
Corby was Michael’s carer before she left the Gold Coast for a holiday to Bali in 2004 only to be arrested at Denspasar airport with 4.2kg of marijuana in her boogie board bag.
She was in a Bali prison when her father died of prostate cancer in January 2008.
Sister Mercedes had always maintained “Schapelle was his baby girl”.
“Her dad and her were really close,” Ms Rose said. “It’s going to be surreal for her when she comes home. He passed here – we had a funeral here.
“We’ve got her dad’s ashes. When we are all in touch, when it’s the right time, we’re going to put his ashes where he wanted.
“Yes (we waited). Schapelle will be there. We can’t do it without Schapelle.”
Ms Rose has previously talked about walking with her daughter at Tugun beach, to have a surf and get “the sand between her toes”.
“We will definitely do that. It might take a few days, it might take a week,” she said.
“We don’t know. We are just going to try and do it. She’s come home, she has to start her life. She can’t be holed up in the house all the time.
“People get that way where they don’t want to go out any more. We can’t let that happen to Schapelle. We have to try and break that barrier as soon as possible.”
Asked what was the biggest change she had noticed about her daughter, Ms Rose said Schapelle had a distrust of strangers and was always looking over her shoulder.
“It’s a horrible feeling. All of us have it but Schapelle has it more. We will do our best, if not suck it up, as simple as that,” Ms Rose said.
The Corbys are not reluctant to protect themselves, launching a defamation case in 2015 which led to a $1m payout after drug allegations were made against Michael Snr.
The family maintains a decision has yet to be made on where Schapelle will stay permanently, whether it was with her mother at Loganlea or sister Mercedes on the Coast.
“I don’t know what’s happening. That will be how Schapelle’s feeling, how things settle down. We will just go with the flow,” Ms Rose said.
The other uncertainty is whether Corby will be able to return to Bali in the future.
“I don’t know. We don’t speak about that. I don’t bring it up because I don’t know if it’s going to be hard to answer,” Ms Rose said.
“We don’t talk about it because we don’t know what will happen. It could be all out of her hands. The thing is she will miss her puppies. She loves animals. They’re been her best friends as well.”
As Ms Rose looks back on the past decade, she has struck a balance between realising that she has daughter returning and her disgust with Australian authorities about her lengthy jailing.
“Like (former federal police boss) Mick Keelty and (former foreign minister) Alexander Downer, they have a lot to answer for. I have written to them many, many letters saying, ‘Why did you let this happen to my daughter’,” she said.
“She’s an Australian, and you know what? She’s innocent. I want answers. Who are you protecting. Or what are you covering up. They say nothing.
“Oh Downer wrote back and said, ‘One size cap doesn’t fit all’.
“Isn’t that disgusting? But you can’t dwell on the past, you have to move forward otherwise it will eat you away.”
Family members are planning to tie yellow ribbons around trees near their home, a symbol first used in 2005 as the campaign began for an early release.
“There are a lot of people who lose their children but Schapelle’s alive. We’ve been able to see her, to hold her. It’s just the injustice that’s been done,” Ms Rose said.
WHEN WE ARE ALL IN TOUCH, WHEN IT’S THE RIGHT TIME, WE’RE GOING TO PUT HIS ASHES WHERE HE WANTED. ROSLEIGH ROSE