Patricia Marjorie Russell, nee Brown
Born
Devoted wife of the late Ronald Russell.
Loving mother to sons Gary and Robert, and
to
daughter Kerry; caring, kind and generous
grandmother to Paul, Michael, Alex, Kelsey,
Emma and Olivia. Loving eldest sister to
Raema, Kay and Kevin.
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Devoted.
Loving. Caring. Kind. This was my mum,
our mother; and I trust also that it
is your lasting memory as well of Patricia Marjorie Russell.
There are many,
many people in mum's story. I can't mention them all today, or frankly remember all of the people she's mentioned over the years.
But any of
them will tell you that Pat did this, or that, for them; or that she was just there when they needed to talk.
They will tell of her kindness, her concern and her genuine interest in their
lives.
Although she liked to keep her distance, her independence
and her own space, she was always
thinking of or talking about others.
She couldn't sit in a bus for a second without turning to a stranger and starting to chat.
Perhaps that was a skill born from her early life
experience, from a time when
Indeed Mum loved
those early years dearly, despite the Depression, and the following World War
and all of the bleakness that it
brought. Mum would say that people were different
back then: that they were closer, friendlier, and spoke with each other with
less reluctance.
She had her special
memories, of a loving family, strict though her war-wearied father may (at
times) have been. And she dreamt her
childhood fantasies and clung to
them throughout her life.
Indeed the make-believe and cheeky humour that she
used as a child became a life-skill that kept her young and in touch
with both fun
and fantasy, in touch with her own children and, later, in touch with
her precious grandchildren; it was a
wonderful way to deflect adversity and to keep on going. Not that she would admit
to any sadness, regret or hardship in her
life.
Mum's dad was an army man and away for extended
periods. The family moved from barracks to barracks, including a stint in
But it wasn't
easy for her family. There were dramas
and difficulties and challenges. Mum realised much later how
difficult these and the subsequent post-war years were - for her mother in particular, and for her family overall.
There's so
much more to mum's story. To the family story. The First Fleeters. The
convicts. The free settlers. Redcoats. Grandparents. Cousins, aunts and uncles.
Siblings to tease and torment. Her own battle with cancer.
But mum loved
the stories, and the story telling. She loved
to talk, though not always to listen - although she could do that as well - if she wanted.
But her true
devotion in life was to her husband, our dad, and to the family they raised
together, and ultimately to the grandchildren she doted on.
Mum and Dad married on
Together they brought us up in that caring, loving, care-ful way
that we know and took for granted.
Mum wanted us to have a safer, more protected
life than the one she grew up in, with fewer struggles, dramas and stresses,
and that's exactly what we got. As
children we knew little about the sacrifices
that make such miracles happen, but as adults looking back we can appreciate
the love, care and concern, and
understand more clearly both the effort made and the reasons why mum was who she was.
Mum could be crazy
and delightfully childlike.
She could drive you mad.
She could badger;
she could stand her ground.
She could keep quiet, yet she couldn't stop talking.
Most of all she had to check, and check, and
double check before doing anything. And then
she'd just do it.
She would be so
careful, then do the most surprising
things. She was a child of the late 1920s who never in her entire life
flew in a plane, yet secretly loved to try out computer games and adored her DVDs. She was our mum, molded and fashioned from a different age but in her special
way as up to date as she ever needed to be.
And she loved us, all of us, whatever we did.
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Life begins
as swiftly as it ends. Time moves
onward at its pace, not ours and doesn't look back. We cannot
change what has been, but we can
choose how to learn, to live and to love. And to take the time to remember.
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Thanks to all of you for coming along today.
Let me introduce now Mum's brother, Kevin Brown, who’d
like to add a few words.
Kevin...