Son’s idyllic last photo one to cherish
Moments before a thrill-seeker jumped to his death off a Switzerland mountain, he sent an idyllic photo of the scenery to his Kiwi mother.
Gwillym Hewetson’s mother, Robyn Hewetson, said she would be framing his last photo to her as a legacy to the larger-than-life adventures he loved.
The 37-year-old died after a glitch as he glided down the mountain in a wingsuit, a high-risk adrenalin activity similar to base jumping.
Robyn, who lives in Hawke’s Bay, said Gwillym was adventurous from a young age. “He was just agile and mobile, and always if there was something to climb on, you know, he was always on it.”
His sister, Frith Hewetson, remembers stories from her mother about Gwillym refusing to stay in his cradle, or trying to run out onto the road. He grew up in a small town in New Hampshire, America, but moved to Hastings and went to school in Havelock North when he was 16.
Gwillym later became a movie editor, and worked on movies with James Cameron, Frith said, and he spent months on a boat by the Mariana Trench for the Deepsea
Challenge documentary.
One day he just started skydiving, Robyn said, and fell in love with it.
“He went from skydiving to base jumping, and from base jumping to wingsuiting.”
For Gwillym, the jumping wasn’t about an adrenaline rush, it was about moments of mindfulness and peacefulness. “He wasn’t ever scared when he did it,” Frith said.
His plan had been to jump until age 40, and then he was going to settle down in Melbourne and start his own company.
Robyn said her favourite memory of her son was this year, when she visited him in Hawaii, where he was working as a professional skydiver.
The pair did a tandem jump on February 21 — and there was no way she would jump out of a plane with anyone else, Robyn said.
After the jump, they sat on the beach together and ate fish tacos.
“He said, ‘You’re the bravest woman I know, you taught me to be brave’.” Hawaii was the last time they saw each other.