Annabel Stafford

Dear Dawn, Caroline, Lucy and Peter,
I am so sorry for your loss of Morgan.
I sat next to Morgan for a little while in the Sydney office after he came back from Canberra and before he went on his big trip overseas. I grew very fond of Morgan. He was a great journalist, but more than that a wonderful person - very funny, kind and vital.
On one occasion, when I was trying to write a story but having awful trouble getting any contact numbers because of a territorial senior journalist, Morgan, with a grin, quietly slipped me all the mobile contacts I needed - much to the chagrin of our colleague, I'm sure!
Other times he'd leave notes on my desk purporting to be from the news editor and ordering me off on ridiculous assignments like covering the arrival of a gorilla at Taronga zoo or doing a ''day in the life'' of one of the shipping containers from the Sydney Ports.
Finding out a childhood nickname had been ''Annasmell'' he would write the byline for a story we were doing together, spelling out aloud ''By Anna-smell Stafford and Morgan Mellish'' - or sometimes ''Anna-smell Stafford and Morgan Smell-ish''. Another of the journalists in our little pod, Fiona Buffini, got christened by Morgan with the name, ''Buffooni''.
I loved getting his emails from his trip to South America, and am so sad that I not really been in contact with him since seeing him for dinner in Canberra before he left for Indonesia. But it is wonderful to see all the photos and hear the stories of his life there and to know that he was living his dream.
Morgan was also a beautiful writer and I try to learn from him. I often hoped when writing a feature or an article that Morgan might read it and like it.
In the days since his death and hearing and reading all the comments about him I am also inspired to live like him. To do work well, but never put work or ''being a writer'' before people or life or being a good person. He never got too obsessed with it, which is an easy trap for a journo to fall into.
I am praying for your family and for Morgan.
I miss him.
God bless
Annabel
Annabel Stafford
The Age
Parliament House, Canberra