Sara Tindley. Photo Jane Rantall.
Hundreds gathered at a small rural property at Lindendale last week to say their final farewells to Sara Tindley, a very much loved personality from the Northern Rivers.
Family and friends had recently been told the news that Sara had passed away around dawn on Sunday, January 15, after a long battle with cancer.
Sara’s brother, Nick Tindley, said everybody knew about Sara because she let everybody in.
‘That’s why there are so many people here today. There’s a lot of similarities between who she was as a young person and the incredible person that she left us as. She was always, always embracing.’
Sara’s daughter, Poppy, read from a letter that her sister Lily (who passed away in 2021) wrote to Sara one Mother’s Day. ‘I think it pretty much sums up how it feels to have Sara as a mum and all the love that goes with that.’
Poppy read: ‘Dear Mum, I am incredibly lucky to have such a strong, compassionate and authentic woman as my mum’.
Poppy added her own postscript to the note. ‘My mum was also beautiful and passionate and powerful.’
Partner, Mark Bailey, said it was hard to put down words about Sara. ‘She wrote about herself in her songs, so a lot of you have an insight – there really aren’t a lot of words that can sum her up.
‘Sara was someone that looked into herself and asked, “What am I not good at?” And she’d focus on that and then she’d dig around – to herself, to me, and then she’d kind of put herself back together and be a better version of herself.
‘We had a dream together – Sara was diagnosed with breast cancer about ten years ago. We went through that – a year of treatment. And after that, you have to face things. What do you do with life? She just wanted to live – every day, in a community, and be deeply rooted. She said, “I want to be a farmer”. So she took herself off to TAFE. She did a certificate in organic horticulture, and we sold up and bought this place, and we created what we are in now.
‘Her wish for this day was to have this in her garden.’
Sara’s wish came true, and she was carried along the creek through trees and flowers, with a long trail of people in her wake, marvelling at her beautiful regen work.
Everyone was then treated to an amazing impromptu backyard concert by Sara’s friends, the likes of which hasn’t been seen in the Northern Rivers – probably ever.
Vale Sara Tindley, 14.11.66 – 15.1.2023
