FOUR children left parentless after their mother died have been named the BoysTown Family of the Year for 2000.
Brett Lachlan was 22 when his mother died of a stroke six years ago. He bought the family home, determined to keep his brothers and sisters together under the same roof.
BoysTown, which runs the Family of the Year award, presented Brett and his sisters Nicole, 25, Carla, 23, and brother Brad, 20, with their prize on December 12 in their home town of Shellharbour, on the NSW south coast.
The Lachlans were to receive a holiday as their prize but asked for money instead so that they could give their mother a proper grave stone.
The Australian head of the De La Salle Brothers who run BoysTown, Br David Hawke, praised the Lachlan family for “standing by each other in painful and difficult circumstances at such tender ages”.
“Our case speaks for itself,” said Nicole. “Brett sacrificed and went without so much.
“At the presentation, Brett said he had never looked at his situation as unfair. He said it was just a delay period and that he had to put off being young and having fun until things settled down and we were older.”
