Celebrating Gran's life

Thought I'd share the eulogy I gave today at my Gran's funeral ........

Thank you all so much for being here today to farewell Gran. She meant so much to so many people, but to us she was our Gran. So I would like to take this opportunity to say a few words on behalf of all of her grandchildren – David, Philip, Andrew, Anneliese, Jessica and myself, Emma.

There is so much we would all like to say …… so many memories, so many good times and so many wise words. It is hard to put it all into such a small little speech but we will try to do it justice.

It seems there are a lot of memories that we all have in common from our wonderful time with Gran that we will never forget. From feeding the constant visitors to Gran’s kitchen window ledge – the lorikeets; to helping Gran tend to her roses and garden; to catching cicadas and collecting their shells in Gran’s backyard; to the wonderful Sunday roasts she use to cook – we all especially loved the novelty of the hole in the wall to pass the food through!

Then there were all of the naughty goodies she kept in her pantry that none of us were allowed to have at home (like cans of soft drink and yummy biscuits); enjoying pomme noisettes as veges with dinner; playing with her in the school grounds at Pymble Public; sharing her avid interest in jigsaw puzzles; collecting all the colourful souvenirs she bought back from her travels to Japan and other places; and finally there were the succession of Camira’s & Torana’s that she drove – always the Holden woman!

Of course we all have our unique memories from our moments with Gran – far too many to mention, so I’ll just share one from each of us.

• David remembers taking trips to Melbourne with Gran, particularly the time they went to pick up his very first car together. On the way home David decided to see what his new car could do and sat on 140km/h for a while, surprised to see that Gran, who was following in her car, was happily putting her foot down too.
• Philip use to love sitting in Gran’s sunroom playing with all the old toys ... particularly an old half broken metal forklift. He still has that old forklift today and his son Alex now gets the same enjoyment from it.
• Andrew fondly remembers playing hide and seek in Gran’s backyard time and time again ….. she always seemed to find him in the same spot behind the compost bin in the far corner of the yard, but she always pretended that she didn’t know where he was hiding.
• My interest in documentaries stemmed from being made to watch the “World Around Us” on TV every time I slept over at Gran’s on a Saturday night – of course at the time “Hey Hey It’s Saturday” or “Baywatch” would have been more fun, but it was always a good learning experience!
• Anneliese remembers a time when she was playing chasings with her brother Clinton and took a shortcut on what she thought was moss-covered ground. It was in fact a large pond! Before anyone else had time to react, Gran had jumped into the pond, shoes and all, to fetch Anneliese out – she was always there when you needed her.
• Jessica treasured the early morning moments with Gran when she stayed over – when everyone else was asleep, she would run into Gran’s bedroom, climb into bed with her and read the paper together until everyone else woke up.

Although we may no longer see her, we’ll always have these moments we shared with her. Gran will always have a special part in our hearts and we are thankful that we knew a special lady like our Gran. 

I’d like to finish today with a little poem to Gran:

Gran, you were just a girl,

So many years ago.

You had your loves and had your dreams,

You watched us come and go.

 

You watched us make the same mistakes,

That you had made before,

But that just made you hold us tight,

And love us all the more.

 

We haven't always thought about

The things that you have seen.

To us you've just been our 'Gran',

No thought of who you've been.

 

But we remember now in love,

Your life from start to end,

And we're just glad we knew you,

As our 'Gran', and as a 'friend'!