SPORTS commentator Clinton Grybas' partner of four years, Laurenna Toulmin, has farewelled a man she said she was “just so grateful to have had ... in my life".
Toulmin delivered a touching eulogy at CityLife Church in Melbourne’s east for Grybas, who died on January 5 aged 32.
After meeting at 3AW, where she was working as a producer, Toulmin and Grybas became inseparable, she said, to the extent where they "did everything together".
"I'm proud to say we were the sickening perfect couple. We'd even hold hands watching TV."
She said they shared everything from breakfast to shopping to going to the gym, to walks through the Botanical Gardens and Saturday nights spent at home "watching two games of football at once".
It was this tendency to share everything that led Grybas to include Toulmin in his other greatest passion – commentating on sport.
"It was the best when Clinton would mute the TV and I'd get my own personal call," Toulmin said.
Grybas would commentate on anything, Toulmin said, from her cooking to driving, and would provide running observations on the life they shared together from their Southbank apartment.
The 32-year-old may have been best known for his knowledge of and passion for sport, but Toulmin said his ambitions didn’t end there.
"He could have been anything. I believe his groundbreaking sports career would have been only one facet of his career.
"He told me one day he wanted to get into politics. He would have had my vote; an honest politician."
Grybas' family told Toulmin he was planning on proposing in the near future, and had even sought ideas on how he should pop the question.
"Apparently he was going to propose, and I've been told he asked a friend for advice on how to," she said.
"Always doing his research. Of course I would have said yes, by the way."
Grybas’ affection for Toulmin didn’t go unnoticed by his colleagues. Fellow commentator Rex Hunt recalled how he "saw a change come over Clinton four years ago".
"It was a change that only people in deep love appreciate," he said in his own eulogy.
"He met Laurenna, the love of his life. We knew it was the real deal by the way he behaved, the happy way that he went about his duties, and he was positively glowing.
"I reckon Laurenna thought it was okay as well. They were so in love and so right for each other – a real fairytale."
Toulmin said she would cherish the last moment she shared with her partner.
"I'm so grateful that his last words to me as I was leaving the apartment that day were ‘I love you’," she said.
"And I'm so grateful mine too were, ‘I love you’."
