Not much to report in today's blog. It's freezing outside and snowing gently. We are tucked up in our wam little nest ever so slowly improving our health. Much of the morning was spent on the phone catching up with the Oxley clan. Graeme's Nana (Vera Oxley) passed away last weekend and the service was today (yesterday) in Australia. At 105 she had led an amazing life and all her family were immensely proud of her. Vera Oxley was one of Australia's first female pharmacists - she was registered in 1925!! I was honoured to have met her.
Catching her on film was pretty difficult as she was immensely camera shy. Hence we are sorry that we don't have a photo to go with this diary entry. But the photo from today's walk is quite apropo in many ways. Nana loved to walk. In fact she was still taking a daily stroll without a stick or frame until 103 if can remember correctly!!
But I thought I would include an extract of her Eulogy . It was put together with snippets of memories from all family members and read by Graeme's younger brother, Cameron.
"Nana enjoyed remarkably good health for 104 of her almost 105 years, which can no doubt be attributed to a life time habit of walking and an active mind. She was certainly no advertisement for her profession. She avoided medicine all her life and was in her 90's when she had her first antibiotics which lead to one of the speediest recoveries known to modern medicine. Her good health survived her brief flirtation with alcohol at the age of 100 when she bought herself a bottle of Baileys Irish Cream. I warned her at the time that it would take years off her life but she didn't seem concerned. Turned out to be just a phase she was going through (about 85 years later than most people) and she soon grew out of it.
She was resolutely forward looking and it was hard to get her to talk about the past. I wish I had tried harder because her life spanned such a remarkable period in human history and life in her early years must have been scarcely recognisable from today's view point. I once asked Nana what she regarded as the single biggest development in her lifetime. Thinking that she might pick the introduction of electric light, air travel, the car, computers, space travel or the internet, I waited while she thought for a moment and then said in her classic understatement: "I rather liked the refrigerator". She then explained that the refrigerator meant that she didn't have to go shopping everyday and therefore it truly gave her more time. As we know she was pragmatic.
Graeme, Amanda and I have always loved and admired Nana who in another era could have been anything she wanted to be – but I am not sure she would have wanted anything other than the hand she was dealt. A hand she played beautifully. With intelligence, good humour, a little guile and cunning, integrity, warmth and love. I am glad Nana is at peace now but we will all miss her and are grateful for the generous time we had with her."
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