'He let his own life go to save us,' Father's ultimate sacrifice for his sons
It’s been seven months since Stephen Dick drowned while rushing to save his sons from a rip.
He regularly took his wife and six children on holidays to NSW’s Boomerang Beach, four hours drive north of Sydney.
It was a day like any other, until 13yo Jacque became caught in a terrifying rip along with his older brother Liam.
Their 53-year-old father quickly noticed his children in trouble and swam out to rescue them from the powerful current.
"It started getting worse and worse and just pulled me straight out," Liam said.
"I was exhausted I just I wanted to just stop and lie down because you get to the point where you're just too tired to breathe."
The trio battled the strong current for 20 minutes before Stephen got Jack and Liam to a foothold.
"I was saying ‘Dad’, ‘Dad’ come in we’re almost there in the sand you can do it, you can do it," Liam said.
But the rescue effort had pushed Stephen past the point of exhaustion. His body gave in and he collapsed face down into the ocean.
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His wife Marianne watched on in horror as Stephen’s lifeless body surfaced in the water.
"Stephen fell so we couldn’t see exactly what was happening. And so I kept screaming, screaming, screaming, screaming," Marianne recalled.
An onlooker working across the road, Jye Fischer, paddled out to help – Mr Fischer was left with the horrible task of recovering Stephen’s lifeless body.
Months later Mr Fischer is no longer a stranger to the Bonnay family, reuniting with Marianne.
"I knew pretty much straight away that he was, that he was gone, but you know miracles do happen, you know, like every second counts in that sort of situation and I just tried, tried to do what I could do."
Jye said when he dragged Stephen to shore his hopes for his survival were dashed.
"I kind of lost it and turned around to walk off the beach and one of the younger kids came up to me and, and grabbed me and cuddled me and said, 'Thanks for trying,' and I just like, that's when I, I just broke down after that yeah."
Stephen is one of 19 people who, on average, drown in rips on Australian beaches every year.
Boomerang Beach stretches for more than 1km and is a favourite among surfers and families during school holidays. It is also prone to rips and strong currents.
"When I saw him coming I said, “Oh there is hope. They are going to take him back out of the water and maybe we’re going to get him back," Marianne said of the moment she saw her husband being dragged back from the ocean.
"When we turned him his colour was green and his eyes were way up and I thought, 'No we won’t get him back'. But we pulled him and everybody got in and we did resuscitation, I did resuscitation."
Unfortunately, Stephen was no match for the powerful sea and drowned trying to save his boys.
Liam and Jacque are forever proud.
"He let his own life go to save someone else yeah."
Marianne has become the rock and sole provider for her six grieving children but is doing her best to help them move on.
"He is the father of my children, he was my best friend. I miss his company, his jokes. You know, happiness has different shades. There is passion and there is also everyday life. I miss everything."
"We just have to learn to live without him and learning with what his taught us and try to be happy again… because I don't want to raise depressed children."
Her reunion with Jye was also her first time back to the beach where she last spoke to her husband.
"I am guessing it has been probably a rough journey for him too because he probably feels that if he was there a couple minutes before, nothing of that would have happened," she said.
"But he was there and he took Stephen out and that was very important to us."
