On Mothers Day 2015 we lost Graham's Nan Marj Weaire after a 6 month battle with brain cancer. We travelled to Sydney to be with her only child Graham's Dad for the funeral and to give Marj a proper send off.
This is what I want to say about Nan - as read at her funeral
I met Marj 10 years ago. First we only
spoke on the phone while Graham and I lived in Indiana in the USA. In 2006 I
met Marj for the first time.
She was the first friend I had in
Australia, She was also my Aussie Nan.
I feel so honoured I got to spend so much
time with her, especially in the first few years I lived in Australia. We were
fast friends.
We went on many outings together in those
early years while Graham and I lived in Sydney
-We
went to museums and art galleries
-
We got to hear the large organ in the Sydney Town Hall played by one of the
best organ players in the world.
-
We saw Andrea Reau at Sydney Olympic Park. And we got terribly lost on the way
home, but we eventually found our way back to Homedale Crescent. She was brave to let her American
granddaughter drive her around at night.
-
We had many coffee’s together and explored the Sydney botanical garden
together, always visiting the fruit bats.
As a new resident to Australia Marj taught
me how to navigate Australian grocery stores, fruit and veg shops and butchers,
all-important things I needed to learn. She was a great teacher.
Marj and I spent hours knitting and
crocheting together in her living room.
Sharing stories of days gone by. She told me stories of her time growing
up around Auburn, she spent many hours outside with her brothers and sisters,
going to the beach and getting sunburnt. She was a beautiful red head with fair
skin just like her grandson Graham.
Marj was a avid reader – She could go
through one thick novel in a day all while snacking on a block on milk
chocolate or eating a bag of her favorite, Twisties.
She was a devoted Mum and Grandmother. She
told me about the many outings she took her grandson Graham on when he was a
small boy. Trips to the zoo, train rides, and many lunches at the cafeteria
across the street from the Sydney Town Hall.
I didn’t get to spend time with my
grandparents as an adult and in a way I feel Marj and I got to repeat all those beautiful outings
she took her grandson on but this time with me as her adult grand daughter
instead.
Marj was no stranger to more then her fair
share of loss and heartache, losing her husband and then her eldest son too
soon. She bravely lead her family forward, devoted to her son Craig, always
there for him in good times and bad. She loved her boy and she made sure
everyone knew it.
Marj had a cheeky sense of humour and in her
later years became a bit of prankster. I won’t go into details because I
promised her that her secrets were safe with me. But Im guessing a few people
from 28 Homedale Crescent might know what im talking about.
Marj loved her Garden and went out “grub
hunting” everyday. This is something her grandson enjoys doing too. She was the
best great grand cat mother to our cat Kit, spoiling him on visits and feeding
him his favorite moist food. He loved to sleep in her fern garden out the back.
I want to end with a story I often tell
about Nan.
In 2007 Graham and I lived with Marj for a
few months. I was new to Australia at the time and shocked at the amount of
cockroaches that are native to Sydney.
One night while watching TV together in
Marj’s living room and BIG cockroach scurried out into the center of the room.
I squealed in horror.
Marj got up from her chair and said “Mary
im going to teach you how to kill a cockroach”
So this is Marj’s 7 Step plan to
successfully kill a cockroach.
1.
Go get the “kill spray” from
the kitchen cabinet
2.
Remove your left slipper or
house shoe
3.
Sneak up slowing on the
cockroach, careful not to spook it. And
hover over the unsuspecting roach.
4.
Quickly with your left slipper
give the roach three good smacks, and have kill spray ready.
5.
Spray the now unconscious roach
with said “kill spray”
6.
Smack roach another 3 times
until the desired amount of deadness has occurred.
7.
Remove the evidence and send
the roach onto his new home in the Sydney sewer system.
A few nights later another cockroach
appeared in the living room. Again I squealed in horror, but Marj looked at me
and said. “Its your turn Mary”
I went to the kitchen and got the “kill
spray” , got Marj’s left slipper then crept up on the cockroach and knelled
down. I was just about to give the roach
a good smack when to my horror the cockroach spread its wings and took flight
directly into my face. I screamed in
shock. I looked over at Marj who said.
“Oh yeah, I forgot to mention some of them
can fly”
I love you Marj, thanks for being my friend
and my Aussie Nan.
You’ll never be forgotten.
