This website hopes to memorialise the extraordinary and blazing life of Zachie Separovic as it commemorates his tragic death by suicide at the age of thirty-six years. Zachie was a loving, adventurous little boy, always creating mischief and mayhem. I remember a time when he leapt off the bathroom basin into his bath while carrying something he thought resembled a lifesaving device he’d seen while watching the television series, Baywatch. Always impressionable, he would often take on the persona of one of his favourite fictional heroes; Indiana Jones and Wolverine come to mind. There were many more incidents like this one and there were times when I wondered if he’d survive his boyhood unscathed; the irony is not lost on me now. Zachie possessed an uncanny spatial awareness and when he visualised himself doing something unfamiliar, like a forward roll over the high jump bar at the primary school sports, or kicking numerous goals for his local Beecroft soccer team, he accomplished them with ease. He was so at home in his early childhood body but this changed dramatically with
the later onset of juvenile arthritis. When Zachie was seven years old, he lost his best friend Chris Holsgrove in a freak trail bike accident and he told me years later he thought this may have been when he began to feel anxious about his body, about the uncertainty of life, about his life in particular.
Making music, bands and musicians were his passion from an early age; he shared a dream of playing at Wembley Stadium with his high school friend Ryan, the drummer in their band South from Here, later renamed The Instincts. He had many early musical influences e.g. The Beatles, Queen, Oasis and of course, Nirvana to name just a few. During late adolescence the early signs of mental illness began to fully emerge, initially anxiety disorder, with numerous visits to psychologists and psychiatrists with changing diagnoses, medications and periods of hospitalisation following over the years. None of these interventions seemed to noticeably help Zachie and his mental distress seemed to escalate as he matured. In mid-2021 during a Covid lockdown when he was living interstate, Zachie experienced an extreme physical and mental health crisis after resuming a course of a drug called Isotretinoin or Accutane, prescribed for his persistent and painful acne; his life became an insufferable nightmare as the horrendous side effects from this drug, combined with the misuse of other substances and the many other powerful psychiatric medications prescribed for him over the years, took a fatal hold of Zachie's mind and his precious body. The two morally abhorrent, malicious, and threatening messages Zachie received in March and August of 2022 exacerbated his already fragile mental state, adding more misery to the last months of his life; I felt powerless to reach him despite how hard we, and the mental health care professionals, all tried. Zachie's suicide was also aided and abetted by Kenneth Law, a Canadian who allegedly supplied over 1,200 suicide kits to vulnerable people all over the world.  As reported in The Toronto Star by Omar Mosleh, the trial for Kenneth Law, charged with 14 counts of first-degree murder, is being postponed from September 2025 to January 2026. The rescheduling is due to a Crown appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada in a separate case that could have a direct impact on Law’s case, as well as broader implications for how courts distinguish between assisted suicide and murder. Two reporters from The New York Times reveal where Zachie sourced the information about Kenneth Law and his suicide kits in an article from PBS: https:///www.pbs.org/newshour/show/why-a-website-with-explicit-directions-for-suicide-remains-active it makes a horrifying and fascinating read.

In hindsight, the terror, pain, and suffering Zachie endured throughout his short life, and during this acute period in particular, was overwhelming for him and for those of us who loved him. The fact that he managed to live, love, and create music for as long as he did, is a testament to his courage and his love.

Following Zachies death I searched for resources that could help to explain the shattering grief I was feeling, and the following is a summary of those I found the most helpful.

Coping with Grief after a Suicide Death:

https://sosbsa.org.au/resources

https://allianceofhope.org/

The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion  (this book deals with grief and is best read one year later).

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