EXCLUSIVE.

"Being in love with Lachie Proctor felt like opening the door to home," Georgie toldMamamia, a smile in her voice.

She'd known him since she was 15 and had a crush on him for several years, before they finally started dating when they were well into their 20s in 2016.

Georgie Copeland was living her real life fairytale; living with her farmer boyfriend on a property in Mungindi on the NSW/QLD border, dreaming about a future full of kids and memories.

But an ordinary Monday night in July 2017 changed everything. They'd been in town for dinner, toasting their friend Warren's farewell.

"Darling, be careful there are roos on the road," she texted Lachie on her way home. She and her stepdad had left early in one car to tend to Whiskey, Georgie and Lachie's dog.

Lachie and Warren were to follow soon after in the ute — but he informed her they were going to take a detour on the way to pick up fuel. Knowing that'd be an hour round-trip, Georgie tucked herself into bed.

She'd only been asleep 20 minutes when she woke with a start. Whiskey was sitting beside her staring at her and she immediately knew something was wrong.

"It was instant," she toldMamamia."Viscerally in my bones, I knew that something bad happened to him."

She woke her stepdad, and they jumped in the car. They came across Lachie's ute on its lid in a creek not far from home.

"It was the stuff of nightmares," she told me.

The ute was a mess. The windscreens were smashed and Lachie's sawn off work boots were sitting there, but he was nowhere to be seen.

The ambulance had only been 20 minutes ahead of them. The ute had been pushed off a single lane bridge by a mob of kangaroos grazing by the side of the road. As she'd find out later Warren had ran kilometres in the dark, injured, to call for help. If she'd been in that ute, like she'd originally planned, it's probable she would have died.

Lachie survived, but he very nearly didn't. He had 24 fractures in his pelvis, seven spinal fractures, 11 broken ribs, a hole in his lung and torn muscles in his hand. He spent the next two months in hospital and once home, Georgie became his full-time carer as he started months of rehab and learning how to walk again.

Lachie hated that. "My beautiful 27-year-old girlfriend looking after a six foot two baby," he'd tell her sadly.

But Georgie felt no animosity. No burden.

"An honour is the only way I can describe it," she said.

Life went on; they got engaged on Valentine's Day 2020 and they settled into their new normal. It was hard — Lachie was still in a lot of pain and dealing with insurance problems and lingering injuries. He also hated what Georgie was sacrificing to be with him. But their love was strong and Georgie was happy. She could see their future, and it was bright.

But on December 4, 2020, Lachie passed away. As Georgie told me, "he participated in his death." That's the only way she feels comfortable describing that night. To this day, she struggles to take her mind back there.

That night she had the same sick feeling in her gut. He'd told her he was going to drive the 10 minutes home from where they were having dinner with her family to get his nighttime medication. As soon as he left, she felt off. It was her step-dad that followed him after seeing her distress and confirmed the worst.

"When he passed I went into complete shock," Georgie toldMamamia. "I broke down, I stopped eating, I wasn't functioning — I was having panic attacks every day, migraines non-stop."

For weeks, Georgie's mum slept with her in her bed. She'd shower her too. Grief was not an unfamiliar feeling for her — she'd lost a son to a brain tumour when he wasn't even three. So Georgie's mum held her, in every way she could while she broke.

That first year was hell. She was put on suicide watch and those around her were terrified they were going to lose her too.

"I could see it so clearly for myself, and to be honest, I welcomed it. I would play Romeo and Juliet in my head and think 'I'm ready'... I didn't want to do it [life] by myself. The grief was overwhelming," she remembered.

Very slowly, Georgie started healing. But she was still very much on that journey when she met Zach Bray in the January of 2022. She was living in the Byron Bay hinterland by then — a fresh start away from the reminders.