Blog 15 –Christan
bank and Memorial for Uncle Brian
We travel
today to Christan Bank where my parents Bill and Margaret spent many happy
years. Once again the police astounded
us at the roadblock . A truck towing another truck had broken down right at the
barrels and there were about 50 cars in a queue behind. The police officers
were quite happy to let them stand as they constantly waved through our traffic
never thinking to stop us and unbundle the huge backlog developing . As a
family we visited Christan bank often and the view from their veranda over the
Mazoe valley is a poignant one and special everytime we see it. Brendan assures
me his phobia about swimming was established in mum and dad’s pool when I kept
holding him on my hands and insisting he throw his arms around and swim.
Luckily he overcame such a poor start and he became a reasonable swimmer later
in his school career.
My folks
developed a close set of friendships with the neighbouring families in this
small rural community and so we went out to stay with Dave and Coral Baxter who
were the next door neighbours. Dave and Coral have been fantastic supporters of
my Uncle Brian , my dad’s remaining brother and who assisted us as proxy family
dealing with all Brian’s needs and care management on our behalf. This included
arranging his move to a resthome facility, management of the financial affairs
and his subsequent cremation and scattering of his ashes following his passing
in 2014.
The ashes
were scattered at the bottom of their garden where it met the bottom of my
parents old property.
It was so
good to sit on their patio and alongside their pool and chat with them as well
as other close friends of my family John and Debs Lafferty and Marcia Hill. Many
good memories were shared.
After
drinks and nibbles we had a wonderful meal provided by Coral and the bottle of
Champagne we had brought was suitably opened when Brendan was able to log on to
his School exam results website and obtain his results of Excellence at NCEA Level
3. He has made his family very proud and
it was great to celebrate with such close friends of the family in a home
alongside my parents old home where brendn had spent many of his early days
before the move to new Zealand. Brendan mentioned the great opportunity to
receive his results in the evening where it could be so nicely celebrated over
dinner rather than as it would be in New Zealand fighting to get onto the
webpage early morning when it often crashes
due to demand.
We probably
had our best sleep that night and Coral has a theory that the spare room is a
sedative because everyone reports a successful sleep when hosted in that room.
We had a
wonderful cooked breakfast and then were shown down to the bottom of the garden
by Dave and Coral and left there to pay our respects to Uncle Brian. We read
out the order of the day of his memorial and the various messages from our
family and friends that had been usent on the day. This was an emotional time
with the recognition that quite by chance this was also a day coinciding with
the 15th January in New Zealand and the anniversary of my father’s
passing.
A few tears were shed and I was well supported and loved by my family.
We left
Brian’s resting place with sad hearts but also with a feeling of completeness.
It is a wonderful place with a grand view of
the mazoe valley.
We were
lucky enough to then be able to walk down the driveway to my folks old house
which remains almost the same. It was great to stand on the lawn overlooking
the pool and down into the valley again. Brendan is definitely feeling the
scale of things as a grown up man as he struggles to associate the current views
with what appeared huge distances across the gardens that he remembers as a
smaller child.
We were
most grateful for the opportunity afforded us.
After a
brief chat with dave and Coral we packed up the car again and
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