One year on... it's gone so fast. Miss you mate...

Without doubt Jordy was one of the nicest, most sincere, fun, intelligent, and easy going human beings i have ever had the privilige of meeting. His zest for life was unrivalled and his ability to make you happy when down, or see things in a different perspective always startled me. He was a mans man yet had the intelligence, foresight and knowledge of someone who was far beyond his youth. I am angry that he has been taken from us yet so happy that i ever had the chance to meet him, be in his company and share the many good times and experiences that would never have happened if not for him. To all his family i am so gratefull that i met your son, brother, grandson, uncle, etc because it is a testament to you what a great person he was, is and will always be. I am devastated that he is gone but so so happy that i spent time with him, and these memories i will treasure forever. Miss you mate and will always be thinking of you. Diggs

Jordan Derkenne was one of lifes real genuine people. I met him for the first time in February 2007, 5 months after I arrived in Sydney. He worked with one of my close friends Ciaran, or Crum as Jordy called him, Ciaran kept talking about this guy Jordy and I knew he must have been a good guy if Ciaran thought he was worth hanging out with. We met up one pretty random night in a backpackers bar and hit it off, he was great craic and easy to get on with. We started hanging out all the time with Jordy cooking me some of the nicest food I have ever eaten, I wasn’t a great lover of vegetables or anything unknown to me before I met him and he made me try things and now I have him to thank for my love of sweet potato, delicious lamb shanks and all the lovely things he made me. Jordy was the kind of guy you could just sit in silence with in a lovely big park watching the world go by or quite happily sit in the pub with watching the footie and getting tipsy. One weekend he decided he was going to take me away somewhere and wouldn’t tell me where we were going – I tried and tried and he wouldn’t tell me, in the end we were supposed to be heading for the Hunter Valley but there was torrential rain and it was washed out. Jordy finished work early that Friday and went ahead of me to see his grandmother and I got the train after work to meet him there in Newcastle, but because of the bad weather the train could only go so far, I was so worried, didn’t have a clue where I was and was wearing a pair of linen trousers and flat shoes – not good when I could have done with a pair of waders! It took so long to get anywhere close to him and as I stood on top of a bench in a bus shelter in the middle of nowhere the white transit van appeared like a vision to rescue me, cars had been abandoned on the roads and there he was to get me. A woman knocked on the window after I got in to see if we could give her a lift and Jordy being the wonderful guy he was said no problem, she offered him money and he wouldn’t take it, he was just doing a good deed for someone he had never met. That night made me realise just what a great guy he was. Once the rain stopped the next day he took me to see Jenni and John in their fabulous home in Eungai, I can honestly say it was like heaven, seeing where he grew up and sitting watching the kangaroos jumping about and listening to Xavier Rudd , it was a weekend I will never forget. I am sitting crying as I type this so I apologise if it doesn’t make much sense. I am so sad that I never knew Jordy was sick, we hadn’t been in touch for a while but he was such a big part of my life for nearly 2 years I really thought I would see him again at some stage in my life, on a holiday to Oz or if he was back in Ireland that we could have met up. The fact that he was so young and had such a great outlook on life makes it even harder to accept he is gone, I still think of him often and the great time we had together. I am forever grateful to my friend Ciaran for introducing Derkenne, as I always called him, to me and to Jordy himself for making me feel so special and for giving me myself back and he knew that he did that. I am so glad I have so many pictures to look back on and smile at, it is hard seeing them sometimes but I wouldn’t be without them. To Jenni, John, Jamie, Danja, Jacinta, Will, Suvi, Caro, Paul, Edith and the entire family circle, my thoughts and prayers are with you all. It was lovely to have met and known you all and Thank You for making me so welcome in your homes and for letting me know about the sad news, I hate to think that I would never have known. Oiche Maith Derkenne x x x

Whilst I had only met Jordan a few times, I first met him when we were negotiating a new Agreement at work. I was immediately struck by Jordan's intelligence and his tenacity and it has always stayed with me. Whenever anyone spoke of Jordan to me; they always spoke of a man with a strong work ethic, natural leadership skills a drive to succeed and someone who could just get along with people and who was easily liked. I admired Jordan's courage throughout his illness; he was greatly respected here and will be missed by all those fortunate to have known him. Regards, Emma Georgiou HR Coordinator, United Group

Whenever Jordo was around life was better. Even if it was as good as it could be it got better when he came round. I loved him dearly like a brother and an uncle. His memory will guide my thoughts words and actions through the rest of my life. I treasure that more than anything – more than a mountain of gold. There’s so much more that’s not expressible. The most special gifts in life are happiness and moments with friends and Jordo always had and always will have a huge place in my heart.

-I am a member of the electrical team and worked with Jordan for about 3 years at North Head. I have been trawling through our site photos to see if there were any good ones of Jordan and also to give you an idea what he was doing for 55 hours a week for 3 years. I will keep looking for more over the next few weeks as there are about 20000 photos on the server and they are not labelled. My connection with Jordan was over two things, I also am pretty fond of food and spent a few years living in the inner west. We used to swap recipes or good restaurant tips and compare notes on places we had visited. I also do a bit of investing for a hobby and we occasioanlly discussed the company shares or superannuation. I really enjoyed time talking to Jordan and found him to be a really unique person for his age. He had a fair bit of wisdom, which is a really rare commodity. The irony of him putting so much of his wage away for a great future is huge. I know of no other person his age who had everything so well planned and was prepared to save and invest to the extent he had. He certainly wasnt worried about a fancy car or pants that stayed around his waist. You are probably already aware, Jordan was very well liked and respected on site, he was a very hard worker and got on with pretty well everyone. He would spend time studying at work when the job got a bit quiet. He has certainly left a big unfillable gap in our team. I met you briefly after the funeral and am very sorry for your loss. He will not be forgotten here. Best Regards Dave Grant, Electrical Site Manager, Northern Region, United Group

Before I say any words today, I must pay my dues, gratitude and respect to Jordo’s family followed closely by his good friends for allowing me the honour and privilege to stand before you and speak. I must say that I truly do appreciate the intellect and physical ability of this man as I knew him. Where I met Jordan was at high school. Jordan’s personality, unknowingly to me, was about to have a massive impact upon me. It seemed nearly almost sudden, that Jordan had become an influential part of my life, showing me that stereotype barriers weren’t always correct and could be broken. Jordan certainly was not someone who worked off of stereotypes and accepted others for whom they were and was generally empathetic and understanding. Jordan, undoubtedly, was one of the most intellectual people whom I have ever met, to which this I feel blessed. He seemed to be able to take on many tasks at any period and complete them. As the years grew Jordo and I shared many similar viewpoints on a large majority of different areas in life, and in doing so Jordan was able to discuss and debate at times with me and allow myself to grow in what I felt was a very comfortable environment for unbridled thinking. Jordan showed me new skills in life which I was unaware of and dedicated a large proportion of his time in speaking to me about many different subjects. One of these which I am unsure whether it’s appropriate, however I will mention it as I believe it would’ve made him laugh, is some very important relationship advice that he gave me “ DO NOT PEE ON THE TOILET SEAT “ which thankfully I have under control, but unfortunately still pee on the floor. He not only helped me with my relationships, but was also able to help my interpersonal skills in general, he basically taught me my work ethic in which I am forever grateful to him for, and was able to achieve all of this by teaching me about myself, which I think is a very special gift. I believe I am not the only person he helped in this way and some people live not knowing themselves at all. I cannot speak one sentence, nor one paragraph, nor any amount of words to summarise Jordan, or speak as ‘last’ words to Jordan as I will never stop speaking to Jordan. Thankyou, Luke Birkin

Your absence has gone through me like thread through a needle. Everything I do is stitched with its color. W. S. Merwin

Jordan was my baby brother. He was seven years younger than me and so for the first few years of his life he was subject to my every whim. As a toddler he suffered weekends of me caking makeup onto his face and dressing him up in short, tight skirts and crop tops. My friend and I thought this was hilarious and took great delight in parading him in front of the cars passing outside our house. He was such an obliging little brother. When he was 6 or 7 he even used to go to the chemist and buy the products I was too embarrassed to buy for myself. Despite being the younger sibling, Jordan has always been very protective of me. Even just recently when my drink was spiked on New Year’s Eve, it was Jordan who battled crowds and public transport and carried me up three flights of stairs to get me home safe to his flat. Making people happy, those that Jordan loved and cared about, was something Jordan was very passionate about. He was always making sure that Rachel would be happy here in Australia. He was already planning how to look after our mother so she would never end up in a nursing home. He was planning to look after our grandparents Opa and Oma so they would always be happy and comfortable in the same home they have lived in for the past so many years. The weekend before Jordan died I attended a concert that I really wanted to go to that I hadn’t been able to get tickets for. Of course Jordan managed to get me tickets and I went to the concert – that was very sweet of him. Jordan’s life was full of both large and small acts of kindness he performed for people. Jordan was dearly loved by his niece and nephew, my kids Sienna and Tyler. When I told my daughter that Jordan had died she said “Does that mean you don’t have a brother any more Mummy?” and then “But you loved that funny boy!.” And…how I loved him. He was my best friend, the one I spoke to on the phone for hours on end about anything at all, who never judged me, who made me laugh, and who spent pretty much every Christmas with me even if we decided just to take off and have a small Christmas with just my family and him. And how I will miss him, miss him teasing me, winding me up, rolling his eyes at me whenever I said anything stupid, the sound of my kids laughing while he played with them and chased them round, his guitar playing, cooking with him, dancing like lunatics together at festivals, his plans and enthusiasm for life. Jordan never did things by halves; he was extreme in his generosity. I remember I got a phone call from him one day just before Sienna’s first birthday. He was so excited and said “I have found the BEST present for Sienna, she is going to LOVE it, it’s soo cool!” and he wouldn’t tell me what it was. It turned out to be the latest Tickle me Elmo which he had pre-ordered and which is still one of the kids favourite toys to this day. One Christmas day he offered to bring the entrée for Christmas lunch and I was thinking he would bring a few prawns but no, Jordan came in with 8 dozen oysters, a massive sashimi platter, smoked salmon and a few kilos of prawns!! After his major surgeries in hospital he never once complained. He amazed hospital staff with his strong will to recover and recover quickly. He didn’t feel sorry for himself or ever let his will to live life dwindle at all. Instead he kept planning, and kept doing his uni work even in hospital. He was so positive and even kept trying to keep us, his family, happy and tried to limit our worry even though he was at his weakest. I remember one time, I went to visit him and I thought he was asleep so I took the furthest chair away from him so as not to disturb him and just watched him sleep. About ten minutes later without opening his eyes he said to me “Jacinta, why are you sitting so far away from me?” and I did a double take and said “what, I thought you were asleep, and how did you know it was me sitting there?” to which I got a big tease about what was the point of me coming to visit him if I was just going to sit in the furthest chair away and not talk to him, he was always making me laugh. He always had time for the kids, even when his body was very weak, he would make a huge effort to entertain and muck around with them and they loved him for that. When Jordan told me that his cancer had returned I went to visit him and we spent the day at Coogee beach. I did my best not to act too worried but he must have sensed it. We were walking along the headland walk and he said to me “You know Jacinta, when someone dies, I’m never that sad” and I said “but how can that be, when you lose someone it is so very sad, I would be very upset” and he said “I’m not sad because they’ve had their life, and they’ve lived it, and if I were sad it would mean they didn’t live it well”. And I said “but if they’re young Jordan it’s not right, there’s so much more to do, there’s so much more life to live” and he said “but they’ve lived their life in the time they had, don’t be sad”. And that was Jordan, comforting me whilst dealing with his own trepidation and uncertainty about his second operation. I came over to comfort him and he ended up comforting me. There’s no need to make Jordan out to be better than he was or exaggerate his good qualities because he had them in abundance. His generosity was unequalled, Jordan tried to right every wrong, make everyone laugh with his teasing, constantly improve himself. Jordan didn’t take much but he gave himself to everybody. He was special and unique and I feel so honoured to have been his sister for the short time he had on this earth. When people ask me how many brothers and sisters I have I will still say 2 sisters and 2 brothers, my brother passed away but I love him more with each passing day. If Jordan were here now I can imagine him shaking his head at me and narrowing his eyes annoyed at all the fuss. Now it’s our job to live our lives the way he wanted them for us.

arriving at my new school for the first day of senior years I looked into the courtyard an saw him- an absolute personality with the biggest presence you could ever imagine(yes- Jordy was at school that day!!!) holding court amongst his public . He was tall and goodlooking however it was the aura of fun and free spirit that drew me to him- he was holding court laughing his head off- in retrospect it would have been at something he said himself! Not quite one month later I was completely in love for the first time in my life. Not only was this boy hilarious- he had the kindest heart, open ears and arms, humility and a full soul. Jordy was one to make sure everyone else was happy and then he'd be "sweet".Words cannot describe how amazing my life became when Jordan became part of it and it will continue on that way as he will always remain in my heart and mind. Life changes, oceans and huge distances did not change what an influence and pillar of strength Jordan was and is for me or how I saw and see him. He was pure of heart and soul, full of love and kindness. He was the greatest at whatever he wanted to be at and was happy to just know himself without the need for recognition of others. Jordan touched and moved everyone he met. A true original with a wise wise soul- called too soon but for a greater purpose. Jordy- I love you and will cherish the time spent with you forever. Love Elle.xxx Jenni, John, Jacinta, Jamie, Will & families- Jord loved you all more than anything- you were all the reason he was as great as he was. Years after I hadn't seen any of you for a while I still know what you've been up to, how much he was looking forward to seeing... on the weekend. I hope that you may all find some comfort in this and in the knowledge that he will never ever be forgotten. My prayers and thoughts are with you all. xxxx Elle