The moment I knew: by night’s end he said he loved me – but a few years later he was gone

‘It wasn’t even a matter of deciding to be together, it just felt inevitable’: Salamawit Meckonen with her late partner, Stu. Photograph: Salamawit Meckonen

I first met Stu in 2010. He worked at a friend’s bar, we went to the same parties and had the same mates. He was just another person in the crowd – I didn’t consider him anything more than that for a long time.

But all that changed in late 2014 when his brother invited me, along with a couple of other friends, to the family property in southern New South Wales for a camping trip. Stu just happened to be visiting the homestead at the time.