Clair Spry says her sister would hate the attention. She would want it focused on the Nepali people, who have been displaced or are in need of aid. She would want it to be on the impact of the climate crisis, especially on the world’s most economically vulnerable populations.
“Her focus right now would not be on her; it would be on the families,” Spry said. “So many people, the Nepalese people, that have been horribly displaced and traumatised. She would want the attention on them and how we are going to help them.
“And global warming. This is something the poorest people of the world are affected by. It’s not the New Yorkers, it’s the people who are in these parts of the world. For Renee, that would be heartbreaking.”
Like many of the missing Australians, Renee arrived at Gyirong Port just 10 minutes before the flood struck. The area was one of the hardest hit – images from Chinese rescue teams show the area completely flattened. Huge buildings, power lines, everything – just wiped away.
Renee is a disability support worker who lives on the Sunshine Coast. She has been with her partner, Shaun, an emergency nurse, since they were 15, and they share two daughters in their 20s.
Clair has set up a GoFundMe to get the three of them over to Nepal – Shaun wants to travel to the port to try to find any signs of her. And their daughters, Lily and Ruby, don’t want him to go alone.
“Their first reaction is, we have to go. The practicalities, and what can actually be done in the first few days, it hasn’t been possible [to enter the area], but they still want to go,” she said.
“And if they are able to find her, to bring her home.”
Renee’s family understand how dire the situation is, and how unlikely it is that she, or anyone in that same area, survived. But until they know for certain, they would hold hope, she said.
“Everyone’s very realistic. We know how bad this was and where she was. But until they find her, everyone’s got this little slither of hope that maybe she’s stuck somewhere and can’t get out, or she’s injured.
“I’ve been looking through pictures trying to identify someone or see her. But we understand the reality of this situation.”
Like most Australians, Renee had come to Nepal on a pilgrimage. Spry said her sister was a “deeply spiritual” person who loved to help people.
“She had two degrees, and she chose to do something that was … a completely selfless vocation. Her priority was always other people,” she said.
“Every person she touched, they knew her love and kindness. She would be so uncomfortable with all this.”
The family of Michael Keats, an Australian who had been near the Tibet-Nepal border when flash flooding began, confirmed his death in posts to social media on Sunday.
Keats’s wife, Emily Boyd, said on Instagram he had been on a pilgrimage to Mt Kailash that had been a “dream for many years”.
“Mike went on a pilgrimage to Mt Kailash seeking enlightenment,” Boyd said.
“There’s a bittersweetness knowing that there was nothing more that Mike wanted then to know God, and to merge with the divine.
”He was a mystic, a medicine man, a teacher, leader, partner, father, brother, son, uncle and dearly beloved friend. He showed up for so many people in so many ways. A heart of pure gold. We love you forever and always.”
