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| Photo by Kyle Head on Unsplash |
Wie geht's?
Jacky and I spent Sunday and Monday in New Plymouth this week. We were there, with a number of Jacky's whanau, for the funeral of Gavin O'Neill's mother (Gavin being our brother-in-law).
It was a lovely celebration of Ruth May O'Neill's life which included a lot of music. That's not unusual at a funeral but Ruth was a singer who performed with her sisters (The Bond Sisters) and later with choral groups in New Plymouth, so there was more music than normal and that was really cool.
While in New Plymouth, Gavin gave Jacky a tapestry and a heavy ornate frame and I borrowed an autobiography written by Gavin's brother, Paul. It is a short but powerful record of his life.
Paul, who passed away a couple of years ago from cancer, was the same age as me and he also loved music (curiously he never mentions his mother's musical background in his autobiography). Apart from that though, we have/had very different backgrounds.
A few thoughts having read it:
- It was a great way of understanding Gavin's background and personality (now I know where all the wisecracks come from).
- Writing an autobiography should be a task that everyone undertakes before they shuffle off this mortal coil.
- Life is short.
