Louisa Steckenreuter.
Dear friends and colleagues,
It is with enormous sadness that I write to tell you that we have lost our much-loved friend and colleague, Louisa Steckenreuter (Carlin), following her brave battle with a rare and aggressive cancer.
Louisa fought with incredible strength and determination and also with gentle grace and good humour. The disease broke her bones, but never her spirit.
Some of you knew her personally – and how much she loved the Guild, loved her work, and loved writers.
Some of you will not have known her personally but I’d like you to know that she has been serving you with care and commitment for almost eight years.
She really cared.
She recently posted a photo on Facebook of the Guild Annual General Meeting where she said how lucky she felt to be part of this community – at an AGM! She was in the office only two weeks ago, oxygen tank in tow, determined to make sure she did everything in her power to help in planning for next year and ensuring everything she knew from the last decade was channelled into making next years Screenwriters’ conference a success. It gave her great satisfaction, and we were all in awe.
Louisa has pretty much worked on everything over the years, from her main role of Marketing and Membership Manager to events, competitions, fundraising and Storyline, including running some of the AWGIEs many of you will have entered during these last eight years.
We are a small team and Louisa brought a peacefulness, a lightness of being, and a love of life that infected us all. We’ve seen her life flourish over almost a decade, evolving into everything she ever wanted from it, as she met the love of her life, delighted in nurturing her two beautiful children and seemed to have that rare gift of knowing and remembering how to be grateful and content.
She was 35 years old and she has left a Louisa-shaped hole in the world that cannot be filled.
If you would like to write a message to her family, please feel free to send it through to us to pass on to them.
A memorial service for Louisa will be held on Thursday 19 November at 2.00pm at Paddington Uniting Church, 395 Oxford Street, Paddington, and a wake afterwards at Petersham Bowling Club, 77 Little Brighton Street, Petersham. All welcome. The family asks those wishing to attend to bring something that reminds them of Louisa to place on a table at the front.
Jacqueline Elaine – AWG executive director