left this life in 2008.
He was my hero, my mentor and friend.
He loved his Mother with a passion I understand , but you rarely see,
"" I would do anything for her"" he once told me"
""She had a hard life and died before she should have""
He helped her by begging for left overs from the Pub. He was one of the oldest.
He sang on the street corner for money so she had food for her children
her many children.
They had one set of clothes each and she sat up
late and washed that one set of clothes and dried it by the fire, so they
had clean clothes in the morning.
He had pretty pale blue eyes and big square rough hard working hands.
that cut our wood, dug in the vegie garden and held us close.
He provided for us in many ways, and in any way.
Some ways my siblings were embarrassed about. I was proud,
it showed he loved us. I loved to help him with his bottles, holding the
bag. My children thought it was great to help Pop.
His father was an alcoholic when he was young, and his family suffered much because of it
Dad told me once that he swore to himself as a young child he would never
drink and he proudly told me when he was 89 he had never ever drunk a drop
of liquor. He had Strong view about drinking.
I never felt safe until he came home late at night when he was on late shift.
He carried me on his shoulders many times. I don't remember , but I am told
To see his friends and to do his work on the farm.
We were always together, when we lived on the farm .
He sold his farm and moved to town, well a few miles out of town, so his
older children could get work and the younger ones better schooling.
He left his beloved farm, I was to learn in later years as Mum had dementia
must have been hard for them, as when we were all together, she would think we were
at Uxbridge again. And the Joy was obvious to any one who was around.
He helped build a chapel, he walked many miles, he loved his brothers and his sister,
they were never far from his thoughts, I dreaded the phone calls"" Ï have some bad news""
when one of them passed away. He cried when his Father died, it was the first time I saw
him cry. He had a soft soft heart. He loved the babies and the children. Tender
feeling are a thing we many of us have inherited. He was fiercly loyal to us his family
I have seen him very angry if we were threatened in anyway.
He grew potatoes to feed us and them, he helped get their wood. he did many things
for his family. WE visited his dad most Sundays when Dad wasn't working.
The dad they would lovingly call'" the Bus'' Hi dad who walked from the nursing
home in New Town to the Zinc works, then on the ferry and the mile to our house
to see his son ( my dad) when he was sick. Then walked back. He was a really old man.
But Love makes you do heroic things.
He cut our wood, only the best , for us. He did many acts of service unknown to any one.
Even us. I learned of a few after he had gone. He was a private man, who loved God and
Knew that God loved him. He wanted truth for us.
He was a diligent Home teacher, and transported many people , to church , going out
of his way to do so.
He never told me he was proud of me , not until my oldest son go on a mission did he
tell me he loved me. We didn't do that in our family. We just knew.
He loved my mother so much. I only heard them squabble once in my life.
I loved it when we had dances at church , to see him hold her close and dance with
her. and hold her like she was special to him.
He loved bread and Jam, and to scrape the Jam pan. He found fruit for us to preserve and
to make into Jam. He wasted nothing. Compost for the garden .
He still had his dancing shoes when he died. And his suit.
He loved to talk and he talked to anyone. He had the gift of being
able to hold a conversation with rich and poor alike.
He was a fair man, but if you did wrong to him or his he would not like that at all.
You would not be ''ïn his good books"" You sure didnt want to be in his bad book
He loved to have fun, when his family got together there were lots of stories and and LAUGHTER
he whistled when he was happy.
He would be hoarse when he had been to see his beloved New Norfolk football team , which was
often as he could. Saw his brothers there. He only stopped going as Mum got more forgetful and
locked herself out of the house, and she was cold and upset when he got home.
We sat by the fire and ate apples of a night and us girls would comb his hair. He loved that.
we did too
He sat by the fire a lot as he got older. He still split his wood when he was 90.
He loved to go to the Temple. Was proud of his Grandsons when they were baptised and got the priesthood, then when they went on missions. It was as good as if he had gone. he would say.
He is the patriarch of a good family. He was a good man. He went to church every chance he got.
It must have been hard for him when any of us moved far away. Every Monday there would be
a letter in the letter box from Mum and Dad for us. Never failed. Sometimes with a few dollars
tucked inside for some icecream for the kids. Not often ,but occassionally . Letters were less
when we moved to USA but they came.
He gave me his blessing to go to America to James. But I knew it was hard.
He was so excited when we came back.
I felt honoured to have helped them in their last years. I felt I needed to as I appreciated all
He and Mother had done for me. My way of saying I love you to them .
I am sad I can no longer go see My Dad. But I see his eyes in two of my grandchildren. I see
his ways in them too and in my sons as they have his ways.
