‘There’s a gap now, she held us together’
It was the words from the police officer that definitively marked the end of Tony Cooke’s time with his wife.
Caroline Boyd, public servant, women’s advocate and avid jogger, was gone only a few hours and lay only a few hundred metres away, but this was the moment the bombshell dropped.
‘‘There’s no easy way to say this ...’’ the officer said.
As Boyd’s family use her personal running map to help heal the trauma of her death, her husband has spoken about the moments after his wife was struck and killed by a car while jogging in Paeka¯ ka¯ riki, north of Wellington.
She was hit near the intersection of Wellington and Ocean roads in the Ka¯ piti Coast village on March 19.
‘‘It was very tough to begin with, coming back here by yourself, because we have very fond memories,’’ Cooke said.
He sat on the sofa across from the door Boyd walked out of that Sunday morning and never returned.
‘‘She loved coming up here and chilling out next to the sea ... being part of the community.’’
Now the Caroline Boyd Memorial Walk/Run will be held on November 12 in Paeka¯ka¯riki, tracing Boyd’s favourite running tracks near their weekend home on The Parade.
Cooke and daughter Becky Cooke were organising the event as a fundraiser and a way to celebrate Boyd’s life. It is a way for Tony Cooke to keep moving on.
‘‘We had been married 30 years. We are just trying to put our lives back together.’’
Even though his wife lay only a block away from their house, he didn’t find out for several hours because she had no identification on her.
Eventually, he headed to the Paeka¯ ka¯ riki surf club and said he was looking for a middleaged jogger. The surf club had already been told by police a woman had been hit and killed in the village.
They took him inside and asked him to fill out a missing person report, and called the police. ‘‘Then the policeman arrived ... and he took me through further identification because he wanted to make sure I was the right person. And then he dropped the bombshell. I think he said, his comment was, ‘there’s no easy way to say this’.’’ Cooke sighs. ‘‘Early on I thought about what I should feel because there’s a couple of things that, instinctively, you want to think about. What if she’d tied her shoelace or hesitated crossing the road? A whole lot of what-if scenarios.’’
One of the ways to keep his wife’s memory alive was the run for family and Paeka¯ka¯riki, ‘‘where this has been a totally unexpected and traumatic event’’.
The event would cover parts of the route that she used to use, with 10km and 5km run and walking options. The proceeds would support youth, women and the community. Her family would match the money, dollar for dollar.
Becky Cooke said running was one of her mum’s biggest passions.
‘‘There’s a great gap in our lives now ... she was the one who held everyone together and was main organiser.’’
Cooke would be joining in the 10km run herself.
‘‘I’ll be thinking about mum, remembering her, thinking this is the run she did when she was up in Paeka¯ ka¯ riki.’’
Hopefully Boyd would be thinking of them and smiling, she said, ‘‘and the sun will come out’’.
A man has appeared in the High Court on charges related to Boyd’s death.
He will appear again on December 1.
❚ For inquiries about the Caroline Boyd Memorial Walk/Run email carolineboydtrust@gmail.com, or register at enteronline.co.nz. the