Katie Grace was at home on a Sunday evening in November when police came to tell her that her son had killed himself. The 20-year-old had left their home in Melbourne nine months earlier to play semi-professional rugby on the opposite side of the country in Perth. Since then, Grace felt an overwhelming urge to see Jordan, yet Western Australia’s strict coronavirus border closure had foiled their attempts to reunite. She was told she and her husband would have to quarantine for two weeks in Perth, away from their two other children, as he lay in a morgue. The fully vaccinated parents offered to wear protective gear, collect his body and belongings and leave, but they were refused.
“He was my baby. I just needed to be with him,” she says. “It was heartless.”
