Mourners honour dear Dolly
Hundreds attend funeral
AMY “Dolly” Everett has been remembered as a cheeky, funloving girl who adored animals.
Her father Tick Everett recalled a young Dolly, at about six years old ordering his boss to get her an icy pole.
“That was Dolly to a tee. She knew what she wanted and wasn’t afraid to go and get it,” he said.
The nickname Dolly came from the day of her birth, Mr Everett said.
“I screamed in sideways and there she was. Kate looked down and said she was just like a perfect little china doll,” he said. “Dolly just stuck.” The little girl who was the face of Akubra “loved anything with four legs and a heartbeat”.
“If she could poddy it or raise it, she would,” Mr Everett said of his daughter’s habit of adopting orphaned animals.
“Sometimes much to my disgust, I’d come home and there would be another poddy on the veranda. But that was Dolly,” he said.
Megan remembered her sis- ter as someone who was “always there, always willing to help”.
Mr Everett said the family was overwhelmed and humbled by the outpouring of support.
They had expected 50-60 people at the funeral in Katherine, not the hundreds that turned out.
A local service was also held at Scots PGC College in Warwick, an intimate gathering of people all wearing blue.
Scots PGC student Lourens Wiid attended the funeral, saying everyone was feeling the sorrow of Dolly’s passing.
“It was a nice service and nice to have it back in this community where she attended so people could say their goodbyes,” he said.
Mr Everett said Dolly’s story was also that of many other children.
“It is sad. There’s probably thousands of kids who’ve already done this,” he said.
“With anything in life, somebody’s got to stand up and try to make a change.
“We realise there are still going to be kids who slip through the cracks – that’s life – but we’ve got to save as many as we can.”
Mr Everett said the family intended to educate kids about bullying through speaking engagements at schools. They plan to establish a trust to be called Dolly’s Dream.
In a prepared statement, he thanked the media and public for the response to the campaign so far.
“We don’t want another family to go through what we are going through and our vision is to establish a trust called Dolly’s Dream,” he said. “It won’t bring our Dolly back, but it may just prevent the loss of another young life. It shouldn’t have taken the loss of a young life to drive this change.”