True life stories

Written by barbydols on January 15, 2011

The pregnant partner of an Aussie who died in the New Zealand mine explosion says their baby will never forget Dad.

Each night, Rachelle Weaver dreams of the happiness she shared with her soul mate Josh Ufer. The touch of his skin, the smell of his hair and the warmth of his strong hands softly stroking her growing belly.

“For a few precious moments I imagine Josh is by my side and that everything is OK,” says Rachelle, 23, wiping away tears. “But by morning, sadness fills my heart, knowing I will never see him again and that he will never get the chance to hold our gorgeous baby.”

Josh, from Charters Towers in north Queensland, was one of the 29 miners buried in New Zealand’s Pike River mine disaster last November – and Rachelle, who has lived in the close-knit nearby community of Greymouth on the country’s South Island since she was 13, is still struggling to cope with the loss.

“I loved him so much,” says five months pregnant Rachelle, speaking exclusively to Woman’s Day. “I’d planned to surprise him with a marriage proposal on January 10 – it would have been his 26th birthday.

“I was going to pop the question over dinner at a jazz cafe in Greymouth. Josh had endured two broken engagements and vowed he wouldn’t ask again. So he said it would be left to me to ask. I couldn’t think of a more kind-hearted, loyal and loving person to spend the rest of my life with." A week before the blast, Rachelle had a series of nightmares that Josh was going to die in a car accident.

Credits to woman days.