The service was held at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Pearce at 1pm. The church was packed. I was surprised at how many people turned up for the service, in the end it was standing room only.
Mum had her tennis ladies turn up for support, there were plenty of rellies form all over and of course the walking for pleasure group.
Dad was a bit of a funeral groupie and used to attend funerals for many of the far flung relatives. I think he enjoyed the free tucker at the wake, or perhaps he was shoring up his bets for his own funeral. I guess one of the worst thoughts would be if no one came to your funeral, it will be like you never really mattered. He had some quirky ways. Every morning he would check the obituaries in the newspaper, telling us that he always like to check that he wasn't in them.
Lezah and I shared the prayers of the faithful and read them out to the church. The eulogy readers did a great job. Murray, in particular, managed to tailor his eulogy to suit the varied audience that we had.
I was given the job of organising the wake. I booked the Hellenic Club and organised food. Way too much food in the end, as very few people from the church ended up coming to the wake. I guess with the miserable weather, short days of mid-winter and lengthy distances to travel, people felt that they needed to get along home.
My dairy entry is as follows:
All went well. Mum coped beautifully. Many people turned up. Church was almost full. Was a foul day. weather wise so few came to the wake afterwards. Still quite a good turn out, though.
When I later got back to my family in Darwin, I found out that they held their own special service for Pa at a park. That was a nice touch for the kids. It was sad that they couldn't come to say goodbye to their Pa, so they picked another meaningful way to do it.
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| A picture drawn by Sarah |
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