One year on, absence of Rod Donald still hurts

Rod Donald's empty seat in Parliament last year as MPs were being sworn in. Marty Melville / Getty Images

It is almost a year since the sudden death of Green Party co-leader Rod Donald and those closest to him are still struggling to believe he has gone.

"He was so enormously full of life, that you can't quite imagine that stops," his wife Nicola Shirlaw said.

"I don't have the feeling I had that week any more, where it was just so shocking that you couldn't get your head around it. Rod worked enormously hard, but he was a very fortunate man - he had gifts, he had friends, he had family, he had a lot going for him, and I can't believe he was so unlucky."

Mr Donald died on November 6 from a rare condition, viral myocarditis - an inflammation of the heart muscle caused by an infection. The 48-year-old was fit and healthy and was about to be sworn in for his fourth term as an MP.

Because of politics, Mr Donald was often away from his Christchurch home and his family, Ms Shirlaw and their three daughters, Holly, Emma and Zoe.

"For someone who wasn't present very often, there's a huge absence, an enormous absence," Ms Shirlaw said.


The children have been a ray of hope for Ms Shirlaw in an otherwise bleak year.

"I didn't know it was possible to love them more or be more proud of them, but I have been this year," she said.

"They are all doing immensely well. They miss him unbelievably and we are all feeling very aware that the anniversary of his death is coming.

"It was his birthday on Tuesday, and so it feels very hard at the moment. I think that will continue through into the next month."

On November 8, Ms Shirlaw and the girls will be at Parliament for the first of a series of New Zealand Made Showcases. Promoting New Zealand-made products was a cause Mr Donald championed, and his colleague Sue Bradford has picked up that torch.

The Parliamentary event will be a tribute to Mr Donald, and Ms Shirlaw feels it will be a fitting one.

"I think Rod would have thought that a really good way to mark his death would be to launch something like that," she said.

"I think it will be a really sad day, but I'm constantly touched by what people want to do. It's quite wonderful really, that so many people want to remember him. I think people die and are forgotten very quickly.

"The girls and I have been to lots of things over the past 12 months, tree plantings and memorials and things, and we're quite flattered, really."