Past Friend

2025 On my way to Collie for the weekend for Australia Day to see my parents, my mother and I were having a deep conversation. In the corner of my eye, I saw what looked like a man. I pretty much only saw what looked like a head shadow and the ears stood proud of his head. I immediately told my mother, ‘Hey I just saw someone standing right by your bedroom door’. I asked my mother to quickly get up and go to her bedroom door to feel if she could pick up anything - both of us felt it at the same time, goosebumps from our legs to our heads giving both of us a confirmation that someone from the other side was present, this was not a negative presence. Unknown to who it was I gave my mother the description of what I saw, he was quite tall, but I couldn’t see his body, it was mainly the head. My mother had seen an old man outside in the back yard but did not match to my description of what I saw.

My mother informed me the next morning that the person who I may have seen would have been Sergeant Carly Burger, who was in the RLI. The reason being she thought it may have been him was because he was in her doorway which is her domain, which made a lot of sense. She informed she thought about this through the night and the description I gave matched him completely. And in this morning as we stood in her doorway, we experienced the presence again finding this as a confirmation that it is Carly Burger.

My mother stated that she had a picture of him but due to a lot of unpacked boxes she wouldn’t have been able to go through them to give me a confirmation as to who I saw. I decided then to research up the photo and found a book written by Alexandre Binda, The Saints p.119 who had a picture of him in their book.

Carly Burger took care of my mother when she was just fourteen years old. Unfortunately, Carly was found murdered years later, he was shot in the back in an ally way.