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highlyeccentricTo about midday on the 31st, Aus time. According to my parents, he was at least in less pain on his final day, although his breathing kept giving out and restarting. By sheer coincidence, D1, his youngest daughter had been reading Squirrel Nutkin at the time; she only reads aloud, and at someone's suggestion moved into his room to read to him. They were very close, so that's a nice image.
Reportedly D2 had a bluetooth speaker recording of Pop playing his (somewhat out of tune) piano, and when the funeral home came to collect him, the family organised a spontaneous rag-tag cortège to the sound of him playing himself out of the property.
My Dad, who wouldn't normally be caught dead doing anything military out of uniform, and who I can only remember doing something *in* uniform out of work once - the time he went to the ANZAC Day march with Pop instead of his own squadron - reportedly slow-marched down the drive. Neighbours across the road came out and saluted.
That combination, the slow march and the saluting neighbours, will stick with me. Pop was a veteran, but not a career soldier. I don't even know what his final rank was; certainly he never made sergeant. Not the kind of person who goes out with military honours, but he never had any other *career*, though he was certainly employed for most of his life. They were an odd pair, my Dad the career serviceman and his father the veteran.
Ed: Oh and the reason they were marching down the drive at all, instead of the hearse pulling up to the house, is the drive is blocked by daisies. Last year Dad organised a family garden clean-up and they cleared the daisies, so ambulances could get in. Pop, who was still mobile at the time, went straight back out and replanted them in a row across the inside of the gate. Dad conceded defeat. I assume he therefore slow-marched around the daisy bushes.
Reportedly D2 had a bluetooth speaker recording of Pop playing his (somewhat out of tune) piano, and when the funeral home came to collect him, the family organised a spontaneous rag-tag cortège to the sound of him playing himself out of the property.
My Dad, who wouldn't normally be caught dead doing anything military out of uniform, and who I can only remember doing something *in* uniform out of work once - the time he went to the ANZAC Day march with Pop instead of his own squadron - reportedly slow-marched down the drive. Neighbours across the road came out and saluted.
That combination, the slow march and the saluting neighbours, will stick with me. Pop was a veteran, but not a career soldier. I don't even know what his final rank was; certainly he never made sergeant. Not the kind of person who goes out with military honours, but he never had any other *career*, though he was certainly employed for most of his life. They were an odd pair, my Dad the career serviceman and his father the veteran.
Ed: Oh and the reason they were marching down the drive at all, instead of the hearse pulling up to the house, is the drive is blocked by daisies. Last year Dad organised a family garden clean-up and they cleared the daisies, so ambulances could get in. Pop, who was still mobile at the time, went straight back out and replanted them in a row across the inside of the gate. Dad conceded defeat. I assume he therefore slow-marched around the daisy bushes.
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Date: 2021-01-02 12:31 pm (UTC)