TV presenter Chris Bath has shared a heartbreaking tribute to her father Donald, who has died after suffering a series of devastating strokes.
The Channel 10 newsreader posted the family’s sad update on Instagram on Wednesday, announcing that his father passed away peacefully on Monday surrounded by loved ones.
“My dad didn’t want a funeral, he didn’t want the ‘hoo ha,’ he said,” she wrote alongside a series of photos of her father.
“At the risk of it haunting me forever, which I wouldn’t mind because I’d really like to have him around, I’m posting this because celebrating the dead is for the living, and there are plenty of people who will. read this who also loved him.
“Dad was a people person. He loved people and people loved him.
“He was one of those parents that all your friends loved, one of those magical people with a gift for making other people feel good effortlessly.”
She described him as “quietly, effortlessly funny, a tractor beam of larrikin energy who drew anyone into his orbit”.
“It would have killed him in show business, but he was a draftsman by trade who ended up a precast concrete guru, the son of a welder and a machinist (who had to give up the job when married),” he continued.
“The fact is that when the father had two girls of his own and lived in a house with three women (interesting during adolescence, he said, as we all rode bicycles), he was never sexist.
“We grew up thinking we could do anything because he told us to.”
The comments section was filled with condolences for Bath’s family.
“What beautiful words for a beautiful man, Bathie,” wrote Channel Seven reporter Jodie Speers.
“He reminds me (almost strangely) of my dear father.
“How lucky to have had a father like that.
“I’m so sorry for your loss.”
“Sending lots of love,” cheerleader Rhonda Burchmore said.
“Oh Chris. What an amazing tribute. Tears. Arms around you. What a dad,” posted musician Tania Doko.