JUST minutes before he died, Nick Longbottom sent his cousin and close friend Allira Longbottom a text message.
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“Fallen asleep twice. I hope I make it home,” it said.
A few minutes later 19-year-old Mr Longbottom was dead, his car having careered off Larmer Avenue in Sanctuary Point into a tree.
Witnesses said Mr Longbottom appeared to be unconscious behind the wheel.
Ms Longbottom said her cousin had been speaking prophetically just the night before last week’s accident.
“He was saying to me, ‘You’ve got to live life to the fullest, because you never know when your time is up’,” she said.
“And he lived life to the fullest.”
Ms Longbottom said Nick was a joker who loved to laugh, and his happy nature endeared him to many.
“He was loved by many,” she said.
“He didn’t think that, but there were many people who loved and adored him.”
He had close friends, adored his parents, loved his sport, and was looking forward to heading to Inverell in coming weeks to take a break from problems in the Shoalhaven and possibly start a new life, Ms Longbottom said.
“He wanted to change his life for the better,” she said.
“He was a good boy, a good kid.”
Nick was particularly looking to find more steady work, Ms Longbottom said, as he had only casual work with the RTA, and that had proven infrequent.
Ms Longbottom had spent virtually every moment with her cousin for five weeks leading up to his death, but left that morning to attend an appointment in Nowra.
They were in contact during the day, right up to minutes before the crash that claimed Mr Longbottom’s life, devastating his cousin and shocking the community.
