Eulogy for John

We’ve come to bury John, part of the fifth generation of European settlers to be buried here at Boram Boram.

 

 

John’s brother Bill’s ashes are here, but Merv’s are at Highton.

 

 

We don’t know how many generations of indigenous people there were before, maybe more than 2000, but in the 1850’s our family came to Penshurst to settle on the old Mt Rouse protectorate.

 

 

John was born on Christmas Day 1941, the fifth child of Harold Mervyn and Rachel Alma.

 

 

June came home to look after the family while my grandmother was at Hamilton Hospital. They were at their grandmother’s for lunch up here at Boram Boram when a neighbour came with the news that John had been born. As a young feller, little Sam would say ‘Mum must have got a surprise when she saw John wriggling in her stocking.’

 

 

John grew up in Penshurst with his brothers Sam, who was 2 years older, Bill, who was 5 years older, and Merv, who was 11 years older, until his brothers left home for work. Sam left at age 16 to join the Air Force leaving just John at home with his Mum and Dad.

 

 

John was a beautiful boy with beautiful curly hair, but he was always different, right from the start. Sam remembers playing with John and Bill, playing boy’s games, and lots of pillow fights.

 

 

Johns had a special talent, he could hypnotise chooks by putting their head under their wing and holding them quietly under his arm until they went to sleep. One day he hypnotised all the chooks and left them lying around the yard as if they were dead. He had a pet rooster which he would bring into the house and even take to bed with him.

 

 

John went to State School in Penshurst. We don’t know how much he learned there, but somewhere he learned to write his name as we knew later from the Christmas cards he would send to us. He also had a year in the opportunity grade in Hamilton with Joan E for his teacher, which stopped when he wasn’t allowed on the bus.

 

 

His disability started to cause problems when he was 16 and he was admitted to Lakeside Hospital in Ballarat for treatment, then returned home. His father died the next year, 1959.

 

 

John stayed at home with his mother until she died in 1961.

 

 

Uncle Earl was the chaplain at Larundel Hospital and arranged for John to go there. The family is always grateful to Uncle Earl for using his influence to help John. Larundel became his home for nearly 30 years. Uncle Earl and Aunty Florrie were very supportive of John, and he developed a great friendship with his mate Tilly. As soon as June got her licence she was out to see him every fortnight, with the kids as well. Going to see Uncle John was a normal part of my childhood for many years, afternoon tea in the park at Larundel, and later in Earl and Florrie’s new house over the road. He worked on the Garden Gang and the Laundry Truck and would tell us about some of his adventures. June never stopped visiting, right up to the end.

 

 

The great loves of his life, smokes and music, were always evident. Bill gave him his first transistor radio which he would clutch tightly while he sang along with the latest tunes. June would replace the radios as they were pinched or lost. He would smoke like a chimney, his fingers stained brown from the tobacco, and his clothes smelled like smoke. He didn’t mind a cup of tea as well.

 

 

John would come down to St Leonards for holidays with us. Bill would bring him down, and Merv or Bill would take him back. Merv and Allie would come to visit with Mervyn, Shirley and David, Bill would come, as well as Sam with his family, Cathy Patsy, Michael, Carol and Graham. Extended family and friends would drop in to see him. I remember his 21^st birthday at St Leonards. A tall handsome man, he, Merv and Bill backed up to one of the timbers in the wall to mark their heights with a pencil. I think he was the tallest! The facilities at St Leonards were basic back then, and when the shower block opened at the camping ground Richard and I would go over with John with our sixpences for a hot shower.

 

 

Larundel closed around 1990 and John moved to special accomodation at Hepburn until March 1992. Moving from Larundel meant that he lost his mate Tilly and would never see him again.

 

 

John tried unsuccessfully to live in a unit in Ballarat East before he found another good home at the Steele Haughton unit in Ballarat where he lived very happily for more than 10 years. June lived close enough to visit comfortably and they could drive around Ballarat or go to McDonalds for coffee. Unfortunately he broke his hip 4 years ago and was restricted in his movement afterwards.

 

 

His friends at Steele Haughton brought his scarf and his teddy in to Ballarat Hospital for him when he became ill.

 

 

I remember John as a happy sort of bloke, he loved to laugh, he had a mischievous sense of humour, and he liked to have a little chuckle to himself. He loved music and would sing happily, often his old favourites Jesus Loves Me or You are My Sunshine, and he was singing My Bonny Lies Over the Ocean when he became ill. He loved his sister and his brothers, his family and his friends.

 

 

We loved John too, and we are all grateful to June for making sure that he was part of our lives and part of our family.