Mount teenager’s dying leaves neighborhood in shock

A neighborhood is in shock and a Mount Maunganui mom of three is “inconsolable” after dropping her eldest son who she describes as “my rock, our beautiful boy, a beautiful soul, my motivation for everything”.

Braidon Townsley, 17, died when the automobile he was driving hit an influence pole on Maunganui Road within the early hours of Monday morning.

Police had been referred to as to the crash simply after 2am, however Braidon died on the scene.

His mom, Cattalina Townsley, 33, says he was “a beautiful person and an amazing big brother” to his youthful siblings, Storm, 7, and Psalms, 2.

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“Braidon always had a cute side-smirk, he was cheeky and grounded within himself,” she says. “He was humble but proud. He was extremely hard-working and so determined to live a fulfilled life. He was due to move back to Australia on May 1 and would have turned 18 next month.”

There is an outpouring of grief in Mount Maunganui.

Mount Social Club restaurant and bar, the place Braidon labored, was closed on Monday to permit the staff to course of the tragic information. A spokesperson says they’re “devastated with the loss of one of our own”, and that Braidon could be sadly missed by the workers, visitors and everybody who knew him.

Cattalina, generally known as Catt, can be a much-loved member of the neighborhood, each as a mum and well-known native designer and seamstress.

The proprietor of Storm Violet Apparel hand-makes and sells distinctive clothes designs from conventional Māori print, and says Braidon was the inspiration for growing her love of stitching right into a enterprise.

“I fell pregnant at 14, and had my son at 15,” says Cattalina. “When Braidon was two I remember looking at him and thinking ‘I’m going to create a better life for you and I’m going to do it doing something that I love – sewing’.

Her best friend, Shannon Finey, describes Cattalina as “the most kind-hearted person anyone could know – a hard working single mother and talented seamstress”, and has arrange a Givealittle web page to assist assist her and lift funds for Braidon’s tangi.

Friends and Mount locals are rallying across the household and messages of shared grief and aroha are flooding the web page, which raised greater than $7000 in only a few hours.

Those who knew Braidon echo the identical emotions for him as “a wonderful son”, a “sweet boy” with a contented disposition, “loving, kind and helpful” with “a beautiful and loving nature.”

Bay Pathways, the place Braidon frolicked as an apprentice, say he was an “amazing young man and a hard worker with such a bright future”.

“The team will miss his infectious smile and quick wit,” says a spokesperson. “He always put a smile on people’s faces and was a jokester who always worked hard.”

Cattalina grew up in Arataki, Mount Maunganui and attended Mount Intermediate and Mount College. In 2018, when Braidon was 11, the household moved to Brisbane the place she began promoting her designs throughout Queensland. She even taught Braidon to stitch.

When the Covid pandemic took maintain they moved again to Mount Maunganui and Cattalina tailored her prints into in style cloth masks.