Skye Ray, a colorful explosion of beautiful, organised chaos, laughter, professionalism and sharp wit passed away on Sunday, October 13 with her husband John by her side.
Despite being dealt the worst hand of terminal illness, Skye’s fortitude and zest for life never faulted and remained a gift to those around her. One could even say she was a Ray of light, cheekily signing off her texted messages with a rainbow.
You can’t get any more cliché than that huh? But seriously, her name was Skye and she met a beautiful man with the last name Ray, they fell in love, married and began to build a life together.
They bought a dream plot of land in South Golden Beach and even though John was technically the builder, Skye had the owner building licence. Skye was a builder, not with bricks and mortar but with love, laughter, compassion, and colour. Skye knew how to have a bloody good time, she was infectious with no hand sanitiser needed, unless she spilt a drink on you!
At her core, Skye found joy by sharing in people’s happiness. That’s why she worked in the caring industry for the better part of her life and at a local aged care service, Byron Respite since 2019, contributing to her community as a Committee Member, WH&S Officer, Support Staff, and Centre Facilitator. Skye was committed to creating learning opportunities for everyone and raising awareness about dementia.
Skye’s commitment to learning shined when she taught ethics at the Ocean Shores Primary School. Skye started the local Dementia Friends Alliance, raised awareness at school fetes, and organised for over 1,000 Mullumbimby High School students to receive dementia awareness training and become Dementia Friends. Always committed to better people’s wellbeing, Skye delivered the NSW Health, Stepping On falls prevention program to older residents of our community.
Skye understood the power of building and creating together and needed no excuse to gather people together to decorate for an event or party. Every day turned into a celebration filled with laughter, stories and colour when Skye facilitated day respite for people living with dementia.
Residents of South Golden Beach may still have nightmares from witnessing the Ray’s ghoulish cemetery creation for the annual anti-tooth festival for kids.
In the house they built together Skye and Big John created a loving home and raised three astute, switched on, yet cheeky boys, Little John, Thomas, and William.
A GoFundMe page has been set up on behalf of the Ray family to assist the family through this difficult time: https://www.gofundme.com/f/skyes-road-to-recovery-now-possible-multi-organ-transplant.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
