‘We hope you find your own happines, as we are discovering ours again’: ‘Hippie’ mum of baby girl, 3, who tragically drowned when she fell off their yacht pens heartbreaking post as she tries to rebuild her life
- Heartbroken mother pens emotional tribute to daughter following boat accident
- Ms Soetekouw had lived with her partner and 10 children on a 13metre yacht
- Beccie Soetekouw lost her three-year-old girl Zeinobiyah after July drowning
- ‘We hope you find your own happiness in life,’ she said in a Facebook post
A mother has penned a heartbreaking Facebook post weeks after her three-year-old daughter fell off a boat and drowned.
Beccie Soetekouw took to social media on Thursday to reveal the process of healing had been difficult after losing her daughter Zeinobiyah, affectionately known as Zobbie, in July.
‘We hope you find your own happiness in life, as we are beginning to discover ours again,’ the post reads.
Beccie Soetekouw (pictured) has penned a heartbreaking Facebook post weeks after her three-year-old daughter fell off a boat and drowned
Beccie Soetekouw took to social media on Thursday to reveal the process of healing had been difficult after losing her daughter Zeinobiyah (pictured), affectionately known as Zobbie, in July
The heartbroken mother took to Facebook on Thursday to pen the emotional tribute to her daughter
‘We do not take our life for granted now. We are here to live, while we still can. Death has brought us new life.’
The body of Zobbie had been found floating face down along the Hawkesbury River, north of Sydney.
Despite desperate attempts to save her, the three-year-old was pronounced dead a short time later.
The toddler spent most of her life aboard a 33-year-old 13m yacht ‘Sumbawa’, travelling Australia with her parents Beccie and Steve and 10 siblings.
The close-knit family sold their Tasmanian farm and all their possessions in 2016 and began sailing, with Ms Soetekouw home-schooling their children on board.
For Ms Soetekuow, the life of freedom on the boat only played into her child’s nature of being adventurous.
‘The thing is, our kids live an extraordinary life,’ the Facebook post reads.
‘What other kids get to see whales beside the boat, as they are sailing up the coast. Or dolphins playing at the bow as we move along the water.
‘What other kids get to see the stars that are lit up like fireflies because there are no lights to dampen them. Or meet the amount of extraordinary people that our kids have met.
‘What other kids get to experience life at its fullest, at it’s most beautiful and at it’s most tragic all in the same place.
‘Our kids live!’
At the time of the little girl’s death, Ms Soetekouw had been ashore at Dead Horse Bay off Brooklyn.
The toddler spent most of her life aboard a 33-year-old 13m yacht ‘Sumbawa’, travelling Australia with her parents Beccie and Steve and 10 siblings
The little girl (pictured), who was affectionately called Zobbie by her parents Steve and Beccie, drowned after she fell from a yacht in the Hawkesburry River
She noticed Zobbie was not on board and her body was found in the water about 100m away.
Emergency services and water police desperately tried to save her, but the girl was pronounced dead after being airlifted to The Children’s Hospital at Westmead.
Ms Soetekouw said the ensuing media coverage had forced her into hiding and to not openly express herself.
‘Having haters, is something that I should be relishing in,’ the post reads.
‘But having haters on me, as a mum who has just lost a child, is hard.
‘I felt as though my voice was styffled. I felt, that my way of grieving – talking about how I feel, had been taken away from me.
‘Then I realized that I am letting others control me. I am letting media scare me into silence. But that is becuase most people don’t talk about how they feel after a death of someone so precious. According to them, I must be doing it wrong, or bad or unfeelingly.
‘But for me, talking is a form of healing. So I am re-talking again.’