Eulogy for Anne Mary Whitehead 11.00 a.m.
Monday 16th
July 2018
Church of the English Martyrs, Goring, West Sussex
Thank you all for coming to celebrate the life of a very special lady.
Anne the mother, Anne the teacher, “Mif” the optimist.
My wife Toni in Perth has arranged for a mass to be said in Australia
today at the same time.
Over recent years, Mif and I rediscovered together some of the places of
her childhood and early life. Mandu Cottage near Torquay, Mevagissey in
Cornwall, Margate (with David), Poole, Bath and even Tarrant Rushton,
the Airfield – all abandoned now and choked with weeds….and our little
Dorset village, Durweston.
On two occasions, including at 3 Haycombe we took our chances and
knocked on the door more than fifty years on, to be welcomed in by a
stranger. It was a privilege to re-visit the past and share your
recollections.
Mif visited my family in Perth Western Australia ten times, both with Dad and later, on her own. Happy times. on the porch in South Perth: the last visit together 2005
I challenged her to recall the happiest time of her life.
“As a young married couple on a Sunday morning in our little car ‘Lucy
Jane’, from Littlehampton to Arundel singing at the tops of our voices”
She also agreed with me
“going
from our little village up through the woods on a Sunday afternoon to
see Dad at the cricket with a pram-full of babies”
Older folk sometimes struggle with new technology. (I am finding this myself). I was trying to explain the internet. “Mif, it’s fantastic! If you want to know anything or check any fact, like ‘the height of Mount Everest’, or ‘the age of the Pope’
–
just GOOGLE it"
...
”but I
haven’t got a GOOGLER!”
As we get older, our bodies tend to weaken. Mif suffered from ringing/
singing in the ears (tinnitus) as I do (and Chris also I know). It’s a
common thing.
But now a moment of silliness! Perhaps to give
her some consolation, I said (and this is daft), I said “what you hear
is the angels singing to you” …”
well, they are singing out of key!”
Mif. You were born in 1924, so you knew privation as a little girl
during the Depression years, and later with rationing during and after
the war. You were tough and knew how to make a lot from a little. You
were an optimist. Your greatest achievement, in unifying and maintaining
your family is evident here. Mif, I was wrong as a confident
twenty-year-old when I told you that your job as a parent was over.
You have known me longer than I have known myself. When I was forty-two, your five words guided and shaped my life. Five simple words (how a mother sees her son) were a blessing. “YOU ARE A GOOD MAN”
Five simple words can give courage and
happiness in a way a twenty-year old cannot understand.
I was wrong. But you were wrong too!
“when
I’m gone, don’t feel you have to come rushing back”
(from Australia). But you are here and so are we.
When Dad died, I found that one or two ‘family anecdotes’, stories from
his past, which I assumed everyone knew, were in fact NOT known. The
same will be true for you Mif. So, this is why we are here. To share our
reminiscences, and sharing will keep your memory alive. “YOU ARE A GOOD WOMAN” The devil and his crew gave up on you years ago, and now you are in Heaven, the angels will sing more sweetly.
front lawn on Mif's 89th birthday 2nd
March 2013
October 2017 Rife Way in the conservatory talking to one of her boys  January 2005: exploring the replica ship "Duyfken", which made the first European contact with Australia 1606       |
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