It was as if Joshua, drifting in his heavenly fish-filled universe, decided to join it, and swam away.
This was the refrain at the baggies-and-slip slops funeral in Gonubie on Friday of Joshua Frachet, a brilliant fish academic and angling star who suffered a shallow water blackout while diving 3km upstream in the Kowie river on August 27.
He had been checking research equipment in two- to three-metre water. Josh was recovered by NSRI rescue swimmers, and though a pulse was restored, he died from cardiac arrest on the way to hospital.
He was only 22.
The grief, in the packed Gonubie Baptist church, and the broader angling community on Friday, was devastating.
As the simple, clean wooden coffin, stamped with his motto, “One life, live it!” was carried in, the community wrapped its arms lovingly about the grieving, tightly woven Christian family, and held them in a moment of unimaginable shock.
When speakers choked, their words barely a husky whisper, people spontaneously got up and gathered about the podium, arms about their shoulders forming that protective circle.
Joshua was no ordinary man. He came rocketing out of a faith-and-freedom loving Gonubie family home, into the ocean and estuary environment. From the moment he could hold a fishing rod as a laaitie, he was never without one. It was his lightning conductor, opening his mind to the eternal wonder of marine life.
His limitless curiosity — and grit in the dark, in sketchy surf — everything marine nature could throw at him, led to national angling honours and becoming one of the youngest doctorate candidates in ichthyology and fisheries science at Rhodes University.
Prof Amber Childs, department head, speaking on behalf of scores of student friends, 40 of them at the memorial, said Josh was “like a brother, a nephew or best friend” and was part of a “barefoot fishy tribe”. Each student had a special story to tell of him, each one positive, fun and happy.
“He was truly authentic, really never changed for anyone. He was just who he was — magnificent, kind and caring, a one in a million.
“He offered to help every student, volunteered for everything with the happiest of hearts and biggest smile. Yet, he was also a man of faith, though he never told anyone. But the way he lived epitomised this by being kind and never saying a bad word.”
He listened to others, always assumed the best in them and respected them with no exception.
“He was always mindful of his words, always grateful and generous. God needed a hero in Heaven and that is why he is there now.”
To a soundtrack of ocean and SA songs, Pastor Marc Morrell had his hands full keeping the memorial going as Joshua’s “young and amazing” life was laid bare.
He said it was amazing how many people had turned out. “What an incredible show of support for the Frachets. It shows how loved you are,” he said to Maryna, Clint, his dad, and Jenna, his younger sister.
The family said: “To our boy, Joshua, you will be forever young. We loved you hard. We have no regrets as a family — only good memories. Rest peacefully forever.”
Amid all the noise of life, Morrell said that if people took the time to be quiet, “you will hear the sound of creation worshipping God, which Josh heard for so many days of his life”.
He had been a friend to everyone, from young to old and his latest good friend was an octogenarian angler he met in Port Alfred.
He said Joshua exuded “a freedom, a lightness in his spirit. He was not merely existing, he was living his life to the full, following his passion, living his dream, fishing, researching, spending weeks with students on the beach. His life was characterised by unbridled joy.”
After their last animated conversation at a chance meeting at Nanaga over pies, Morrell returned to his car thinking: “This young man knows what it means to carpe diem (seize the day)”.
“Joshua knew the sea. He was asked what he did and he said ’I am just a fisherman’. No bro, you were a scientist pouring your life and experience into others.
“Boy, Josh had a heart full of love. He loved God, his parents, his sister, his friends, his mates. He could pour that love into others because he had been the recipient of that love from his special family. He was deeply loved by his family and he knew it.”
A Selbornian from primary to high school where took academic honours in 2021 (and appeared in a photo in Go! on July 8 that year in his blazer and tie), he loved being barefoot, but for his sister Jenna’s matric farewell had donned suit, tie and smart shoes for her picture at Mermaid’s Pool.
“He never felt the need to impress or exaggerate his many achievements.”
He had been “absolutely free to be the unique young man God created him to be because he was totally secure in the love he received from people and the divine”.
Drift angling expert and creator of The Dawnie, Nick Pike, broke down at the podium and was supported by seven men who gathered about him, arms linked. He said Josh’s death had triggered the trauma of watching surfer Bruce Corby die in the parking lot after being bitten by a great white shark at Nahoon Reef.
Addressing two young men who had been with Josh on the river, Pike said: “My heart is with you. My friend Bruce died in my arms.”
So he knew the terror and calamity of a best buddy passing and having to phone his mom and say they did the best they could. “I know you are not sleeping at night,” he said. “I know where you are at.”
“Lord Jesus, pray for these two young men so they can sleep at night with a joy, a peace in their hearts.”
Pike thanked all the anglers present “who came to pray with us”. One of Joshua’s angling mates said “Frachi” was a brother who lived both his lives with both his hands. His only fears were “missing out on an adventure and angering Tannie Maryna”.
Maryna, who once famously looked about his in-transit Rhodes digs had threatened to send him back to res if he didn’t stop to straighten it out.
In other tributes, Josh was described as part human, part ocean, “the water was where his spirit was, it was where he was most alive”.
His sister Jenna, recounting his pranks, said he once commented on pictures of her in a pretty pink dress for a school function, that it was good “but where is the rest of the dress?”
She said his early departure was a loss of her lifetime, she had expected him to be at her 21st, her wedding, and when she had children.
“I wanted to make a speech at your wedding. Josh, you were meant to be with me to the end,” she said.
His family wrote: “God has prepared a special beach for you to fish for eternity.”
