Rachel Barber 
​1983 - 1999
​Official Memorial Website
​Administered by Rachel's parents Michael and Elizabeth Barber  




























This is such a peaceful photograph that I saw on my friend's  facebook page that I just had to share it with you. Thank you Rita.


Disclaimer:
     The Rachel Barber Official Memorial website​ contains hyperlinks to external websites. The Rachel Barber website is not responsible for the subject matter or accessibility of the external websites. External links are provided as a service to our readers. Photographs here are not to be downloaded or shared with other sites and copyright remains with the photographer,  other than those the movie page have permission and contractual use of. In the friends pages there are excerpts from letters sent to our family after Rachel's murder. It has not been possible to contact all these people so where appropriate I have deleted identifying surnames.​​ All     copyright of stories remains with the author of each story.  Also descriptive text remains     copyright of Elizabeth Barber/Southall.








Australian Centre for Grief and Bereavement

I would like to draw your attention to a website I found July, 2013. ​​I was looking for books I could review for children on grief but found this wonderful site with many helpful reviews. It suggests several books for children and adults. What I find helpful are reviews on books about different causes of death, including murder and suicide. I wish I had found something like this when I was searching for material for my own children. I still find that death is that taboo subject, but death is a real part of life. I am going to attempt to put a link to the site here. I would recommend if you are looking for something to read that you may find something helpful here. In particular I remember reading Coping with Grief by Mal McKissock and Dianne McKissock and thinking helpful this was.

​​This site also suggests links and services for grief and bereavement support including a list of resources.





http://honeyinthemedicine.blogspot.com.au/2013/09/on-envy-worst-of-vices.html?spref=fb

​​From Susan Southall's blog Honey in the Medicine
​On Envy: The Worst of Vices.
​
I was listening to the radio as I drove home from work one night last week, and they were playing Handel’s Joseph and His Brethren. An aria struck me, where envy is described as ‘the worse of crimes’ because from it all others arise. I’ve known personally of someone who was prepared to murder for envy. It clearly leads to theft, deceit, false witness (a way of life in ancient courtrooms, and in some places testimony can still be bought and sold today), adultery, treachery, and greed. The final item will then lead to oppression of the poor, cheating in business, slave labour, and despoiling of both land and sea. Joseph’s brothers, of course, sold him into slavery out of envy. And the last of the Decalogue forbids it: do not covet anything that is your neighbour’s, because out of this all the other sins will appear.
What do we envy? Do I want a beautiful house, a beautiful car, or beautiful clothes? Do I want it enough to steal a car, for example? Why? Will I be more beautiful, or will my life be more beautiful? The person who was prepared to murder acquired a life in prison: that was envy’s reward. This is the secular answer.
The spiritual answer might be more complex. Why envy at all? Every person is in a unique situation with all its faults and blessings. If I say that ‘other people’ have better health, for example, I forget that millions are dying every year around the world from malaria: the bite of one mosquito. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The rich have their sorrows as well as the poor, and some of these are not redeemable through money. The beautiful often carry their beauty as a burden, overwhelmed by the illusions of others.
What we ourselves have is often as valuable as anything we might envy. It can all be lost in a day, too. Do we envy what is present, what is past, or what is to come? Sitting in the pews at St. Peter’s Eastern Hill today, I heard a magnificent choir singing Arvo Pärt’s Beatitudes, and how could I envy the finest seat in the greatest opera house in the world? I had my hearing: isn’t this enough? And it all can be lost in a day. Life is too fragile for envy. Let us then bless God.





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Victims Support Agency
Victoria: Department of Justice
1800 819 817​​


Victim Support Australia Inc
Contacts and information


Victim Support United Kingdom
contacts and information​





International contact websites and information for:
​Victim Assistance Online  (VAonline.org)
​'A reference, resource and networking centre for the international victim assistance community.'
​


I am aware this website can be viewed internationally so I thought I would provide contacts for global Victims of Crime. I particularly like the international site I found, which provides contacts for people in their own language. Australian contacts are at the top right hand side of this page. Please click on blue links to go through to web pages of your interest.





​​​​​​​​​​https://www.facebook.com/ProjectButterfly2013


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​The following is taken, with permission, directly​​ from the facebook page Project Butterfly. Kirstie was a primary school friend of Rachel's and has contributed to Rachel's memorial page.  I wish Kirstie and  her supporters all the very best with their worthy cause;

"About
​
Queensland Bereaved Parents uniting to provide memory boxes to hospitals in memory of our babies and as part of our healing journey.

​Description
​
In the past, when families have lost a baby or child, many of them have received a ‘Memory Box’ which helped them create and keep their precious memories of their child. The boxes are most often made by other bereaved families in memory of their own lost baby or child. These families understand the devastation such a loss means and are thus able to convey an enormous amount of love, hope and understanding with the giving of each memory box. Research shows that the way you are treated by health professionals when you experience a loss can influence significantly the way in which you will experience the grieving process. It is extremely important that every family that experiences a loss in a hospital is given the love and comfort they deserve. We believe a key element of this care is the provision by hospitals of special memory boxes to the grieving families. These boxes become very personal possessions for them to carry out of the hospital and to hold the precious memories of their child. The box reinforces the fact that their baby existed and that he or she is loved and remembered. Unfortunately, these memory boxes are no longer readily available to the hospitals in Brisbane.

This project has been started In Loving Memory of Toby & Lachlan. The overriding aim of the project is to empower bereaved families to create their own memory boxes in memory of their babies to supply their local hospitals, an immensely healing process and means each box is made with love and understanding. We are able to offer support, advice and if required contents for the boxes, to enable the families to achieve this. We are not currently an official Registered Charity and are only able to receive gifts of donated goods for the boxes at this time

We regularly get together and create memory boxes to give to hospitals in Brisbane. We are happy to share our boxes and what goes in them with anyone who wants to create a memory box for a hospital anywhere in Australia. 

​​Our only advice is to make sure you have a contact at the hospital and the permission of the hospital or their guidelines of what is allowed in the boxes before you go to the effort of making anything as some hospitals have strict policies (which are truly ridiculous sometimes!) regarding what they are allowed to give to patients. Please contact Kirstie at kirstieshaw@live.com.au if you would like more information :)"
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Victims of Crime
On this page you will also find online contact details for Victims Support Agencies around the world.​