Eulogy: Wynne Davidson (1931 – 2015) Speaker: Leonie Davidson We are here today to celebrate the remarkable life of Wynne Davidson. Wynne was our loving and much loved daughter, sister, wife, mother, aunt, mother-in-law, grandmother, great grandmother, and friend to many. When explaining her loss recently to one of the little ones she was fondly referred to as the “queen” of our family. Wynne was born in 1931 in the small farming community of Denmark, W.A. The fifth of six children, Her parents, Leonard and Marguerite Tanner, were pioneers who came by ship from England and carved a dairy farm out of the bush. The children have fond memories of life on this magical property. In Wynn’s own words: “The house plot with a Kikuya lawn, the rose garden, violets along the edge – lots of different fruit trees, (the mulberry the favourite) the vegie garden. The paddocks: the flat, the slip rails, the new clearing, the night paddock, the calf and bull paddocks, the back, top, bottom and the hill. The creek that ran through the middle and joined the Denmark River at the far end – surrounded by forests with Mt Lindesay rising from beyond the river and one more property. Cows for milk and cream, horses for work, pigs and sheep for food and profit, chicken and guinea fowls for eggs and eating. Rabbits and roos for skins and eating. Dingos that howled in the night and foxes yapping, emus that frightened the cattle. Birds of every kind, parrots and kookaburras, silvereye and magpie, butcher birds, crows and hawks. Owls and curlews who called at dusk. The creek had minnows, gilgies and leeches. The mile-long walk to school, walks to visit our neighbours through the bush or over the paddocks. Trips to town in the cart, mother gathering twigs for kindling, cricket with dad, dogs and cats, log fires and bush fires. Clear moonlight nights when we played hide and seek. So many lovely memories.” The trips to schools got longer: from the one-mile walk to the tiny Mount Lindsay Group 101 school, to a six-mile bicycle ride to the Scotsdale School and then an 11-mile bus ride to the Denmark District High School. Then it was time to fly the nest. Wynne did some waitressing at the Denmark Hotel before moving to Perth where she worked in the diet kitchens at Royal Perth Hospital. It was at Geraldton that she trained as a Nurse Aide and later worked at Graylands Hospital and in Bunbury. Wynne then set off to work her way around Australia. She got as far as Derby in the Kimberley where she met her future husband Ashley Davidson, a romance that blossomed when he was a patient at the hospital. Wynne and Ashley married in 1952. They raised four “wonderful” children – and she would agree with that description. In the early days Wynne managed with a wood stove for cooking and a kerosene refrigerator – in Derby where the temperature is regularly in the 40s. The Kimberley was a very isolated place in this era, and we were a long way from family in the south west. Mums best friend Roma Jones became Aunty Roma to us, and her children David, Peter and Bronwyn we considered our cousins. We referred fondly to their dad as “Dumpy Jones”. Mum loved the Kimberley. She loved the red dirt, the boab trees, the marsh and the big starry sky. But there was one thing she did not love: the frogs. Big, green frogs that emerged in the wet season to hop into the house and hide in the toilet. Wynne’s worst nightmare was realised one day in the shower when, reaching for the soap, her hand instead closed on a large frog. Wynne gave us a childhood full of love. She gave us a love of reading and the natural world. We often sat out on our front lawn at night and listened to mum who would wax lyrical about the moon and planets, the galaxies and the universe, enlarging our horizons from the small dusty town in which we lived. She encouraged and supported us and her love was unconditional. Every 2 years Wynne would take us south to visit her extended family – a great adventure for us. We would set off to sea on one of the state ships - which we thought was pure luxury - and travel down the coast, stopping at several ports along the way. There was a fancy dining room where the children ate first and then the adults while we were looked after by a nanny. There was deck hockey and a swing and endless corridors and ladders to explore. We were left mostly to our own devices as poor mum suffered such sea sickness she was barely able to get out of her bunk, let alone enjoy any of the amenities. Once we reached the port of Fremantle we would be whisked away to visit our aunts, uncles and cousins and finally the night train to Albany where Grandad would collect us. At last we would arrive at the beloved farm and the next generation could get a taste of the wonderful life that it offered. It was these journeys that forged our lifelong friendships with our extended family that remains strong to this day. After years spent dedicated to raising children, Wynne went back to work, eventually retraining as a nurse at the Derby Hospital. Once we children were off her hands, mum got a chance to continue her travels, taking trips around Australia, and to the U.K. Mum and Dad also bought a camper van and travelled around the country. In time the grandchildren started to arrive, courtesy of Mark and Carol. Mum considered Carol to be another daughter, and Carol would fondly refer to her as “my other Mother”. Mum and Dad had the joy of looking after Jamie and Carla when they were little. Kristal arrived not long after they had moved to Rockingham. Ambrose arrived some years later, and by the time Imogen arrived mum assured me she would not be able to “help with this one” due to her age. Sure enough she sang, rocked and sat up in the wee hours to comfort a crying baby just as she has done for all of the others. In 1985 Wynne and Ashley retired and moved to Rockingham, but sadly Ashley died in 1987 leaving Wynne a widow at a relatively young age. Fortunately, her sisters Diana and Ursula and brothers-in-law Cyril and Fred also lived in Rockingham. Her brother Hugh and sister Vicki, sister-in-law Dulcie and brother-in-law Harold lived not too far away in the south west and half-brother Wilf lived in Perth. She spent time doing volunteer work for the Brain Foundation and as a member of the bowls and scrabble clubs she made many dear friends. Mum established her own family tradition of travelling north every winter – to Broome, Derby and Darwin – and in summer East to Melbourne. Mum would stay 3-4 weeks with everyone, fitting seamlessly into each family’s life. Mum was always appreciative of the welcome from her sons-in-law: Deb’s partner Kim Wann, Megan’s partner Lawrence Pope and my partner Mick Connolly. Mick and Lawrence’s broader families also got to know and enjoy mum’s company. Mum especially liked it when some or all of her children and their partners were together in one place: what pleased mum no end, and gave her great joy, was that we all got on so well together. One of the big attractions in the north for mum was her grandchildren. She was so proud of her grandchildren Jamie, Carla and Kristal; Ambrose; and Imogen. She was thrilled to become a great-grandmother to Carla and Shayne’s children Ashlee, Aaron, Cohen and Blake, and Jamie and Kim’s adorable little Lily. In 2011 mum turned 80 and we had a big family celebration in Rockingham where we hired a big house on the beach and made a fuss of Wynne for a week. It was just weeks later that she suffered a stroke and after months of hospital and rehabilitation moved into Gracehaven nursing home. In the last few years we were able to visit regularly and push mum in her wheelchair around the beautiful lake nearby, which she loved. The littlest members of the family had a chance to get to know the “queen” of the family before she left us. Speaker: Megan Davidson Wynne loved cricket. When she was working at the Royal Perth Hospital she and her mates would head off to the WACA to watch the last few overs of the cricket after work. She listened to it on the ABC when we were kids, and rarely missed an Australian test match on TV. She loved to go to matches at the WACA and her visits to me in Melbourne often suspiciously coincided with a test match at the MCG. When Wynne said that she had a life-long dream to see Australia play England at Lords I suggested that we should do this together in 2009. Having promised mum this and with 18 months to plan the trip, I was dismayed to find that one cannot just book tickets to a Lords test match. In fact it is almost impossible to get tickets to a test match at Lords. Desperate to get some inside information on how I might get tickets I phoned my colleague Alex Kountouris, the physiotherapist to the Australian team. What a relief when Alex said he had some tickets, and we could have them. So at 78 mum got to see that test match at Lords. Mum would agree that in her life, she had a pretty good innings. Tribute to My Other Mother - A Woman of Courage and Strength Speaker: Carol Davidson A little tribute to my other mother, she passed on from this world on Sunday and I felt pleased that I spent the last 2 days with you. It was difficult to see you in pain and that is still fresh in my memory. My other mother was a great lady and a wonderful woman. So I feel I am one of the luckiest people to have had a wonderful mother-in- law so happy go lucky, kind, considerate and caring as you were. I remember when your first grandchild was born all I could hear was your voice yelling down the passage of the maternity ward, where’s my grandson, where’s my grandson. Not to say you weren’t happy when your granddaughters were born, you were proud as punch and over the moon even when your great grandchildren were born too. I would like to say again, “thank you” from the bottom of my heart for always being there for Mark and I and our family. Mum we will always remember those unforgettable moments and have lots of fond memories of you visiting us up north in Derby during the July and Christmas holidays. Some of the memories were playing board games and walking on the marsh with your grandchildren and great grandchildren. I am going to miss those little chats and conversations about anything and everything, coming down visiting you, taking walks around the park, enjoying Christmas BBQ’s and most of all preparing all those packed meals to last you for the next lot of school holidays when I come done to visit next. Like you always said, “You are one of my daughters not my daughter-in-law.” Thank you for accepting me for who I am. So I like to say: “Love is stronger than death even though it can’t stop death from happening, but no matter how hard death tries it can’t separate people from love. It can’t take away our memories either. In the end, life is stronger than death.” “Rest in Peace my other mother, mother, grandmother and great grandmother” For his grandmother from Jamie Davidson Speaker: Shane Thorne Today I found you had left me, my heart was split in two. One side filled with memories the other side died with you. I will lay awake at night when the world is fast asleep, and take a trip down memory lane with tears upon my cheek. Remembering you will be easy I’ll do it every day, but missing you is a heartache that will never go away. I will hold you tightly in my heart, there you will always remain, life will go on without you, but will never be the same. Rest peacefully my beautiful grandmother love you forever xx Wynne loved the first few lines of the poem God Knows by Minnie Louie Haskins (1908). Speaker: Shane Thorne And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year: “Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.” And he replied: “Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the Hand of God. That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.” So I went forth, and finding the Hand of God, trod gladly into the night. And He led me towards the hills and the breaking of day in the lone East.