Tributes flow from parents, friends and schoolmates
anniversary,” Mr and Mrs Bendel said.
The couple moved to Clermont for a while and returned to Far North Queensland in 2002 and made their new home on their farm in Tumoulin.
In 2008, Ava was born, and it was love at first sight.
“When Ava went to school at St Teresa’s Primary School in Ravenshoe, Juanita became part of the school community,” the Bendels eulogised.
In the six years before their next child, mum and daughter had forged a special bond.
“She was the apple of her eye,” the Bendels said.
Ava, following in her mother’s footsteps, developed a love for cattle and learned to show and to judge cattle.
“She was dad’s little mate and ‘ right-hand man’ and, if you believed Ava, she did it all.”
Sister Hannah was born in 2014, and then Olivia in 2016.
School friends of both Juanita and Ava, through tears, shared their memories after the eulogy was read.