I’m conscious that we’re getting to a point where there is a lot of overlap between some of these aspects of Gaia’s personality that I’m sharing. I’m not going to apologise for that, I think it’s an inherent consequence of trying to describe someone based around individual aspects of their personality, when in reality we are all composites.

It will therefore probably come as no surprise to anyone who has read me describe Gaia as expressive, uninhibited and loving to find out that she was also sensitive and caring. Indeed, yesterday’s post ended with a poem Gaia wrote in primary school which her nanny had kept, for years, because it captured how sensitive and connected Gaia was.

There were a number of examples of Gaia’s sensitive and caring nature. People remembered her going out of her way to support others, even when she wasn’t feeling great about life herself; of her working hard to create gifts tailored to the recipient; of her standing up for what she felt was right, even if others didn’t agree.

It sounds like Gaia felt things deeply. I guess maybe that’s a consequence of living your life wholly and loving freely. High highs and low lows. Her mum, Kim, recalled Gaia as:

‘very caring… she was very maternal towards her friends… she hated injustice and would speak out.

[Referring to Gaia reporting being sexual assaulted Kim continues]

She’d override her own fear to highlight what was wrong or might harm others. Obviously that was a choice for her, whether she was going to do that or carry on with life and try and ignore it… obviously it couldn’t be ignored’.

Kim had earlier told how as a young child Gaia had decided she wanted to be a midwife and how she loved babies. As a child she’d steal her older sister’s baby doll to feed it. Kim’s eyes glaze over a little as she holds back tears and recalls:

‘She was just so loving and caring.

She loved babies.

She loved animals.

She loved her family and friends’.

Gaia did her work experience at a local Montessori nursey school and enjoyed that. Kim again returns to Gaia’s maternal and caring nature.

I’d asked Kim about which animals Gaia loved and she’d said she loved horses and shared that she’d wished she’d got her a dog. I had just asked if she’d had any pets, when I became aware that Maya had walked into the room. She provided a bit of a running commentary on her mother’s answers, disagreeing with her answer about pets, which she later expanded on when we spoke. In answer to a question about pets Kim had said:

‘Yes, the cat was really her cat, Bella. She was a much loved fluffy black cat, we got her from an animal sanctuary near us… Gaia had much comfort from Bella, I guess they both shared a lot of patience.

Bella had a history with a few issues and Gaia was the only one who could get close to her. She was a family cat but we all knew she belonged to Gaia’.

When I spoke with Maya she didn’t disagree with anything that her Mum had said about Gaia and Bella’s relationship, she just disputed that Bella was Gaia’s first pet.

That honour went to a dead bee that she’d found when they were little. Gaia had found this bee, kept it in a shoe box and even made a house for it. She’d called it Cee Cee and tried to nurse it back to health, unsurprisingly she wasn’t successful given it was dead, but that didn’t stop her trying.

There aren’t any photos of Gaia and Cee Cee, but here’s one of her and Bella.