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So free-spirited was Lily Hooper, that as a child, her long blonde locks would exist in a constant state of entanglement.
So determined to lead a life of adventure and discovery was the 18-year-old that she moved through life without a moment’s consideration of what others thought of her.
“She was authentic and had a style all of her own,” her mother, Kirrily Hooper, said at the teenager’s funeral on Thursday morning.
For eight days, Kirrily and Lily’s father, Jim Hooper, hoped for the safe return of their daughter from the expanse of the Nattai National Park, where Lily had vanished during a solo hike on August 12.
On the eighth day, desperate to lure his daughter from the suffocating NSW Southern Highlands bush, Jim Hooper lay Lily’s beloved guitar and a packet of Tim Tams, her favourite biscuits, among her loved ones longing for answers.
By nightfall, searchers had recovered Lily’s body from dense scrub off the Bonnum Pic walking trail, one of the national park’s most challenging and treacherous hikes.
Lily, her parents told hundreds of mourners on Thursday, died how she had lived: with enthusiasm and courage.
When Lily began music lessons, Jim Hooper said, she gravitated towards the violin, knowing it was among the hardest instruments to learn.
Like the countless interests she excelled at, Lily had thrown herself wholeheartedly into exploring wild places.
In the months before her death, the 18-year-old had steadily ventured further from the bushland around her Oakdale home and pushed herself further into the unknown, where her parents say she most wanted to live her life.
“Lily showed young women how to stand and be free,” read a poem shared with mourners on Thursday.
“With strength in heart and life in hand. To be adventurous, courageous and free, and become whoever they choose to be.”
Lily had dreamed of travelling the world and had applied for work as a travel guide.
Among the many achievements Lily’s loved ones took for granted, Kirrily Hooper said, was her daughter’s work as a guide taking tourists on climbs across the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
On Thursday night, the Sydney Harbour Bridge will be lit up in purple in Lily’s memory.
The 18-year-old’s family said her legacy is one of determination, kindness, curiosity and the effort with which she lived life. Increased education and safety awareness for solo adventurers such as Lily is the silver lining they hope comes from her death, believed to have been caused by a fall on the day she went missing.
To her friends, Lily was a beacon of bravery and encouragement to chase their dreams. To her sisters, Lily brought out the best in everyone she knew.
“Lily had the world in her hands,” one of her older sisters said.
At her martial arts gym, where Lily was working towards a black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, she will be remembered for her spirit and determination.
Long forgotten by mourners on Thursday was the miscommunication between police and her family that left Jim and Kirrily Hooper mistakenly believing their daughter had been found alive, a failing that Jim Hooper says has been forgiven.
Instead, loved ones scrawled tributes on Lily’s Hyundai, which was found near the entrance to the national park shortly after she was reported missing.
The car arrived at Lily’s funeral in convoy behind her lily-adorned white casket, “forever 18” drawn across its windscreen and rear window.
“One of Lily’s greatest qualities was that she was fearless,” Kirrily Hooper said.
“Let’s live a little more like Lily.”
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