Our son, our brother, Phillip
The Hughes family's moving statement on the 10th anniversary of his death.
A healing of sorts is happening. Complete recovery is impossible, but significant steps have been made.
This morning Phillip Hughes’ family have released a statement to mark the 10th anniversary of his passing.
The mum he called ‘Ginny’, a woman he would call almost every day of his life, his father Greg, who shuttled him up and down the highway from Macksville to cricket fields near and far, his beloved older brother Jason and his younger sister Megan were so lost in grief in the early years after his tragic death it seemed they may never emerge from it. Mum and Dad especially and understandably so. I witnessed it first hand in the days I spent in their Macksville family home researching the book Malcolm Knox and I wrote for them about his cricket career.
Fate had let them down, snatched from them the brightest light in their life. Cruelly, it happened in front of Ginny and Megan’s eyes.
Australian cricket also let them down at the inquest, again an event I was sorry to be part of. The less said of that the better.
Adam Burnett has crafted a documentary, The Boy From Macksville, with the family that I am told is heart warming and very good. It will screen on Channel 7, Fox Sports and the cricket.com.au website on December 6, immediately after Day 1 of the Adelaide Test.
There are elements of this endeavour that are significant in the healing process between the family and the game that took him from them. The generosity of their spirit is admirable.
Here is a preview of the documentary.
And here is the message from the family to the Australian public.
Hughes Family Statement:
Today marks the 10-year anniversary of the passing of our treasured son and brother, Phillip Joel Hughes.
Phillip was a loving, humorous and an infectious person to be around. He always aimed to make those around him smile and enjoy the little things in life, where his beautiful smile would come to life. He shined bright even in the tough times, which is a testament to who he was as a person, and we loved everything about him. He was the light of our lives. Phillip had a profound love for his family and lived his life with respect to everyone around him.
Phillip, the small-town country boy, became an Australian Test, One-Day and Twenty-20 cricketer, where he played on the toughest pitches around the globe, alongside the toughest of cricketers on the world stage, but never forgot where he came from and who helped along the way.
He was a unique individual that took risky and adventurous strides to conquer the dreams he set for himself to become test baggy green number 408. He played cricket for all the right reasons and had the ability to take it all in his stride. He loved being a part of a team and representing Australia for the game he loved so deeply.
The number of stories, laughs shared, phone calls and conversations wouldn’t be able to be told over a quick drink at the local pub, which leads us to having the opportunity 9 years ago to create the official biography of Phillip – ‘Phillip Hughes The Official Biography’ that gave us the pleasure of sharing more about who Phillip was. Those pages consisted of his journey from his childhood to his final legacy of 63 NOT OUT*.
10 years on, a documentary – ‘The Boy from Macksville’, will be shared alongside Cricket Australia, who we’d like to thank for supporting this endeavour and each person who worked tirelessly behind the scenes for creating a celebration of Phillip’s life. We hope we have been able to showcase that dreams really do come true and you will enjoy seeing his family, friends and teammates give more of an insight into his career from his baggy blue, baggy red, baggy green and many more moments in-between including unseen footage that can be watched for generations to come.
We hope between the biography and documentary, young cricketers around the world and everyone that was with Phillip along the way, will see the hard working, dedicated, devoted and rare cricketer he was. His extraordinary talent is known by many but his lasting impression of who he was as a person will always be remembered, which makes us extremely proud of him. Phillip was always proud of the younger cricketing generation he met along the way and was always hoping he could be an inspiration, no matter where you were from and that is also our hope.
Cricket gave Phillip the stepping stone to start a new adventure of Four O Eight Angus, named after his proud baggy green Test cap number. Black Stud Angus Cattle farming back in our hometown of Macksville, where he loved the land and his animals and would tell anyone who would listen. The business was built on dedication and it’s a testimony to how high he climbed. He loved to symbolise his cricketing journey in his farming career as a tribute, which still stands proud today. Phillip loved Macksville and the local surrounding towns, where he was able to come back throughout his cricketing years and felt right back at home.
We want to share our appreciation to everyone who has respected our privacy and wishes throughout the last decade and continuing to do so at this time. Thank you for being on this journey with Phillip, he loved taking everyone along with him on this ride, living out his childhood dreams.
It is essential for us to express our heartfelt thanks, sincere gratitude and appreciation to our extended family and friends, our hometown of Macksville and surrounding towns, to the wider cricketing community in Australia and overseas and the farming community.
Phillip, we love you, we miss you and we are forever proud of you. We think about you every day and we are so thankful you were ours. Thank you for being the most extraordinary son and loving brother.
The Hughes Family - Gregory and Virginia | Jason, Danielle, Charlie and Billy | Megan and Curtis.
(I note that the family has grown. Phillip, as you can intuit from the photograph above, of him with Ed Cowan’s daughter Romy, would have been the most doting of uncles.)
Beautiful ,poignant,moving read..Gone way too soon was Phil Hughes ,such a wonderful player and a great person from simple ,rural Australia ,nipped in the bud by Cruelfate.
Must be so agonising and tough for the family even after a decade let alone as it unfolded back then .TIME does heal but the memories will linger ever so fondly for the doting family who must have worked so hard to see the boy grow into an Australian player ,living out his dream,yet retain his roots ,stay grounded ,rounded by travel etc Sad.Tears one up to recall and revisit his unfortunate death .
All my cricket loving friends are remembering and talking about Philip, a remarkable young man, and our thoughts are with his family and friends. Ten years on and still making an impact!