Georgie Copeland learnt her boyfriend had been killed in the horror NSW Hunter Valley bus crash, less than three years after her fiance died in similar circumstances.
Copeland was still mourning the loss of her fiance Lachlan Proctor, who had died just before Christmas in 2020, when she met Zach Bray.
Although she thought she would never find love again, Copeland and Bray began dating and she slowly began to let love back in.
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But Copeland’s world was once again turned upside down when Bray was one of 10 people killed in the NSW Hunter Valley bus crash in June 2023.
Copeland opened up about the tragedy on the Darling, Shine! podcast, describing the heart-wrenching way she found out Bray had been killed.
After her fiance died from complications as a result of a car accident, Copeland said she struggled with her mental health.
She met Bray after spending time at a health clinic in Byron Bay.
After a bumpy start to their relationship and only recently reuniting after some time apart, Copeland said she did not accompany Bray to the wedding at Wandin Estate in Lovedale.
But she said she had helped him dress for the event and was receiving videos and messages from him throughout the night.
The next morning when she woke there was no message from Bray.
“That was really weird because he is one of those guys who does send you the ‘good morning’ text and lets you know they’re thinking about you,” Copeland said.
When she had still not heard from him by midday, she thought he must have had a big night at the wedding.
Copeland instead called her mother and they spoke about how happy she now was.
“I’m on my high horse talking about how happy I am,” she said.
Copeland said her mother replied: “You’re absolutely right, there are so many bad things that happen in this world — did you hear about that awful accident in the Hunter Valley?”
Copeland said her mum explained a bus had crashed while taking people home from a wedding.
“I just stopped,” she said.
“Zack was on that bus, I just knew it.”
She tried calling Bray’s phone, which went unanswered, before calling his mother.
“I didn’t know if his family knew that we were back together, that we were starting again,” she said.
“I didn’t know what they knew but I just knew something was wrong and so I rang his mum.”
Copeland said Bray’s mother answered in tears and was making her way to the Hunter Valley with her family.
After Bray’s death, Copeland said she “went to a dark place” as she struggled with yet another loss.
“I thought, ‘I’m cursed, who is going to want to date this girl?’,” she said.
“I don’t come with baggage, I come with a proper griefcase.”
Despite her losses, Copeland decided to throw herself back into life and travel the world — telling the podcast she “started saying yes to everything”.
“Life is short, tomorrow is not damn promised,” she said.
“If I did die tomorrow, I know that I’m happy because I actually take everything in a way of gratitude. I’m just so lucky.
“I am lucky to have been loved by Lachie Proctor. I am lucky to have known Zach Bray. I’m not cursed. I’m the luckiest human alive.”