Natalie Barr’s year in review: Kate Middleton cancer, Trump shooting and Raygun’s big break in a wild 2024

As a kid I can’t remember saying that the year has gone by so ridiculously fast and definitely quicker than last year, so I must be officially old.

Like most of us it all comes back in snippets: Kate on the park bench in the striped top, pale and almost shaking with frustration announcing the cancer after weeks of speculation.

What would have been the final straw for them… the online trolls claiming the Palace was using body doubles to hide her death?

The King was already dealing with his own diagnosis after waiting almost a lifetime to take the throne.

Back home, bollard man, the mum who threw her baby into the arms of strangers to save her, the dad shielding his children’s eyes as he walked them out of the shopping centre at Bondi.

The flashes that return to your mind of the story that stopped the nation because it could have been any one of us.

We stood around the TV unable to speak because of the horror of it all and cried with the survivors and the families of the victims.

Far from home the unbelievable pictures kept coming.

The children, the mothers, the sons, the fathers.

As the leaders in the Middle East kept fighting, heads of state around the world argued, the people in the middle died in their thousands.

Each side said it was obvious what the answer was.

One of the most enduring memories of 2024 was the shot of Trump, blood streaming down his face, “Let me get my shoes”… fist in the air, “Fight, fight”... the cheer of the crowd and the chant starting, “U-S-A, U-S-A!”

The composure in the moment.

But for most Australians, a frustrating year where few haven’t despaired about the cost of life.

I sit between politicians every couple of days and try to give each side a chance to explain why our groceries cost more, our power bills are higher, our rent and our mortgage payments don’t seem to be coming down any time soon and sometimes I despair at the answers (or lack of) myself. For me, politicians who are less political, stop blaming the other side, answer the question without spin and show some humility and say sorry now and then would be so far ahead of the pack, they might just win a few votes.

Maybe Raygun did have the answer.

Her Olympic story has frustrated the hell out of me.

I think of all the kids who spent all the hours over all the years to become Olympians in 2024 and we don’t remember many of their names.

Raygun is famous.

Then again, she went out and did it her way, didn’t apologise and absolutely owned it.

Which I guess is the way we’d all like to live our life in this unpredictable world.

Catch 7NEWS Presents – The Seven: 2024 in Review this Thursday at 7pm on Channel 7 and 7plus