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Long-time partner recalls man who ‘added 10 years to my life’

Gaitors holding memorial for Stevenson and Benoit They will be mourning on three continents for Daryl Stevenson this weekend. And long-time partner Anita Denvir is sure Stevenson, 31, will be toasting his life right along with his friends.

Gaitors holding memorial for Stevenson and Benoit

They will be mourning on three continents for Daryl Stevenson this weekend.

And long-time partner Anita Denvir is sure Stevenson, 31, will be toasting his life right along with his friends.

"There will be 30 to 40 people in Melbourne on Saturday night for a service and they have all written something," said Denvir, who has spent the last three years travelling with Stevenson, a teacher from Perth, Australia.

"Some have written poems and they are meeting at our local pub just to give him a toast. The same thing is happening in London on Friday so he will be a busy ghost going to all the parties."

Stevenson was killed along with best friend Mike Benoit in the early hours of Saturday morning when Benoit’s Volvo plunged into the raging waters of Rutherford Creek after torrential rain and high water caused the bridge to collapse.

On Saturday there will be a gathering at Gaitors Bar and Grill for friends of Benoit and Stevenson.

One thing Denvir said she could say for sure is that Stevenson died with no regrets.

"It is terrible that he is gone, but he fit more into his life than most people do in 10 lifetimes," said Denvir, who admits to falling in love with Stevenson "on second-sight."

"He was always active. He loved life and he had such a great time.

"I know he wouldn’t have a single regret about anything that he did.

"He was four years older than me but it was pretty hard trying to keep up. I think he added 10 years to my life."

In the last trip the two will take together Denvir will deliver Stevenson’s remains to his Australian home in the next few days where a service will be held for him.

In the three years since Denvir and Stevenson met they had accumulated a lifetime of memories.

There were the festivals in England where they met and lived for a year, the three-month Odyssey through the Middle East, and the celebration of Denvir’s birthday in Paris.

And there was the trip to Denvir’s Melbourne home to meet family and friends, and all the great diving trips together.

There was even a conversation about death.

"We talked about it and we both thought graves were depressing," said 27-year-old Denvir, who works in human resources.

"So he wanted to be cremated. He didn’t want his name written anywhere. He wanted it so that someone at any time could sit there and think nice thoughts and not feel that they had to go somewhere and talk to him.

"I know that his mom’s ashes were sprinkled in the ocean at a place called Rottnest Island just off Perth so I will take him there to be with him mom."

Stevenson is survived by his father and one brother. He became an uncle last week for the first time.

Denvir and Stevenson were getting ready to spend several months in South America.

"It would have been an incredible trip," said Denvir, her voice strained with heartache and loss.

She has received hundreds and hundreds of e-mails and phone calls from the people who were touched by Stevenson.

And friends all over the world will toast his life this weekend.

"He was funny. He was the most energetic person I ever met," said Denvir. "When he got excited about something he really got excited and put in 500 per cent.

He was always scheming something and very mischievous.

"He was a very honest sort of person and very open and he expected everyone to be the same."

Stevenson loved to snowboard – he owned four boards. And he loved to do it with Benoit an outstanding Telemark skier.

"He was fast," said Jay Cates one of Benoit’s roommates.

"He was one of the few skiers I couldn’t beat on my snowboard.

"He had great style on the mountain when he Telemarked. He looked like a longboard surfer. He was always doing big drop knee turns and carving it up in the bowls.

"This year we were going to do backcountry courses and do more backcountry stuff."

It was skiing that brought Benoit, 29, to Whistler from his Nova Scotia home. He travelled out here, like so many before him, in a van looking for adventure and fun. He found both in his few short years. His parents and a sister survive him.

"He couldn’t live in the city and he and his dog Cole were always tramping around, golfing, and camping. He loved the outdoors," said Cates.

"He was only human, I don’t want to make him sound like a saint or anything but he was honest, and a really good guy."

"I hope people remember him alive."

Benoit’s remains will be returned to Nova Scotia in a few days. But, said Cates, his ashes will be flown back to Whistler where they will be scattered on the snow he loved to carve and play in.