Her laughter. His smile. A click of the camera, and a few nibbles on the line.  The beauty of the headland and the lighthouse, a white custodian shining beams of light over the depths as night became day. 

It’s a memory 14-year-old Tiana Williams will treasure always.

“We didn’t catch anything,” she said. “But it didn’t matter.”

It was a moment, embodying much of what her father Simon Campbell Williams held dear to his heart. His family, his fishing and the beauty of a simple life.

Just two weeks later, Simon would be taken from the many who had come to love the 46-year-old, after police believed he was swept from the rocks in a fishing tragedy near Lighthouse Beach. 

“I’m glad he was doing what he loved, but I wish it didn’t kill him,” his youngest said. “He really was a great dad and we were very close. 

“I’m going to miss him a lot.”

Simon leaves behind his wife Janine Fitzpatrick, his two daughters Tiana and Daneesha Williams and his mother Linda and brother Jon.

But the memory of a kind-hearted father with an infectious smile, and a stone-dry sense of humour will remain long after his passing. 

“He just loved his fishing,” Simon’s wife Janine said of her late-husband. 

A bad day fishing is better than a good day at work, he’d always say. 

Sunday’s were reserved as special days for casting a line, and often finishing the day with a round of social golf with mates. 

But the ocean called for Simon long before he surrounded himself by the big blue. 

Just before his sixteenth birthday, the determined young man set out from small town Tumbarumba – on the south west slopes of the Snowy Mountains - to chase his dream of serving in the Navy.

For 15 years, he travelled as a fitter and machinist, finding himself in foreign parts of the world on what he saw as a real-life adventure.

“He’d always tell us stories about his navy days,” 17-year-old Daneesha said. “He thought travelling was something everyone should do.”

Perhaps it was during his time abroad that Simon gained his unique perspective on life.

Because if anything, one thing was clear to his family – Simon was one of a kind. And, until his final days, Simon was a kid at heart. 

He was armed with wit, a man with an uncanny ability to create beautiful things with with his hands. A lover of nature, and an independent thinker.

“He never cared about what other people thought about him, he just did what he thought was right,” Janine said of her husband.

Two years after the birth of his first daughter, Simon decided this meant leaving the navy to spend more time with his family. 

The family then moved to Brisbane, and seven years ago decided to make a sea-change and find a home in Port Macquarie. 

Here, he used his own hands to help build the family home.

And quickly, became a valued employee, friend and much-loved man of the community.

In the eyes of his daughters and his wife, Simon has gifted them with a lifetime of treasured memories. A list of lessons, an immeasurable amount of laughs.

“He taught me that life is more than just money, it’s more about the people you love,” Daneesha said.

“He said to me once, “don’t be sad, keep your chin-up and just be glad, for all the good times before the bad.”

This is what the family clings to as they come to grips with the passing of the most important man in their life. 

FUNERAL SERVICE: Family and friends will join them in celebration of Simon’s life at the St Agnes Catholic Church from 10am this morning.