IT has been impossible not to be moved over the past week and a half by the tragic death of Bathurst father Dane Ballinger.
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We all now know that Mr Ballinger died in a truck crash on the NSW north coast 11 days ago, prompting a flood of tributes from across the state.
I did not know Mr Ballinger but plenty of people in Bathurst did. They describe him as a hard-working family man who loved what he did.
He was still a young man when he started his own trucking business, Ballinger Transport, in Bathurst in 2004 and he was still a young man when tragedy struck last week.
He leaves behind a wife and four children and countless grieving friends and family members.
Every death has an impact, but the death of a young man - a young father - who simply did not come home from work one day has impacted a whole city.
A funeral notice for Mr Ballinger published in the Western Advocate on Thursday carried the message: "The idea is not to live forever but to create something that will."
The packed Performing Arts Centre at St Stanislaus' College for Mr Ballinger's funeral on Saturday, and the long convoy of trucks that later circled Mount Panorama in his honour, suggests Dane Ballinger has done just that.
