Storytime

On Sunday we went down to Geelong to visit my step-mum K and to have a 'memorial' lunch to celebrate Dad. Sunday was one year since he died and she wanted to have some kind of celebration. With my aunt and uncle (Dad's youngest sister and husband) and K's niece we went to one of Dad's favourite restaurants by the water.  We enjoyed a lovely meal, watched the boats come and go, raised a glass to PJ and then went to visit the grave site. I'm not a big one for visiting graves but it was fitting on this occasion. As K said, it is hard to believe it has been one year already. In some ways it seems like a few months ago, especially when you ring their home phone and Dad answers. 'You have called Kildare, the home of Peter and Kate.' So surreal to hear his voice like that but comforting in a strange way as well. I wrote a lot of poems when he was very ill. Those months when we all knew the end was very close. I wrote his eulogy, trying to describe ...

My father recently died and the funeral was on Monday. His death was not unexpected, he fought a long battle with cancer, yet even though we knew it was expected, we are never ready to say goodbye. But we did. It was a lovely service, with all four children, twelve grand children (and one great grand child) attending. One of my brothers did a reading, as did my daughter. And I did the eulogy. This was one of the most difficult things I have ever written. I did one for my brother-in-law, but I was one of several who shared memories, stories and thoughts. Here, I was one voice, trying to capture the shared memories of four children. I must admit it took quite a few days to write. So many memories that I couldn't include....I would have spoken for hours otherwise. But I did my best to attempt to sum him up. His hobbies and interests...the way he was. I wanted my family to be proud of the final piece of writing. To be able to say, yes that was him. Yo...