Queensland State Champion Beltman,
1946
Joy and Maurie off to see
the Queen, 1963
World Masters - Surf Dash 65-69 Champion, 1995
|
Queensland State Champion Beltman, 1946 |
Joy and Maurie off to see the Queen, 1963 |
World Masters - Surf Dash 65-69 Champion, 1995 |
This is a memorial to my father, who passed away on 16 December 2005. He was a good man, a very sociable person with a commitment to community service.
His life is summarised in the eulogy given by my sister Pam at his funeral, and his contribution to Surf Life Saving is described by Ron Rankin AM, President of Surf Life Saving Australia.
He was a keen sportsman, having played Aussie Rules football and water polo at top level, and over the years trying his hand at Rugby Union and Rugby League, competitive swimming, tennis, squash, the shot put and golf. It's typical of the man that it was a grazed knee at a social cricket match that developed into septicaemia and nearly killed him in the late 1950s.
He was ready to have a go at anything, including running with the Olympic torch relay in 1956 and smoking Rothman's cigarettes in a TV ad - when such things were allowed.
But it was in Surf Life Saving that he found the sense of fulfilment that began in 1945 when he was introduced to Palm Beach Surf Club (where he soon met my mother Joy), a connection that lasted literally to the day that he died.
His first major success in competition was in 1946, and he was still winning races in the senior division in 1995. I recall seeing him in 1997 in a 3 Km swim when he lurched from the surf to the finish line, delighted that he'd beaten dozens of swimmers decades younger than him.
But it was as an administrator and fund-raiser that he'll be best remembered. He was as competitive in the committee room as he was in the sea, and those who felt the full force of his relentless logic may not entertain completely happy memories, but they did emerge from the contest better informed than when they went in.
One other love - after his family and Lifesaving - was meeting people and travelling. He and Mum caught the travel bug later in life, after their financial state became a little more comfortable, and once started they found it hard to stop. In the last ten years, when they'd done all the overseas trips that they could manage (and therefore had to console themselves with re-reading the detailed journals that he always kept) they found new pleasure in being organisers and entertainers for the bus trips taken by their Seniors' club on the Gold Coast.
In 1999, he was diagnosed with cancer and this was followed over the years with various complications, with frequent trips to hospital for treatment, observation and operations. He didn't complain much about this, although it must have been difficult for a man so used to robust health and fitness. Throughout those years, Mum was there to look after him, to lift him up when he fell, to bandage his many little wounds when his blood was thinning, and to listen patiently to his problems with the Surf Club. On his final days in hospital, when he could no longer do much at all, she was finalising his accounts for the Life Savers Art Union, reconciling the figures and banking the cheques.
He dearly wanted to last until Christmas, to see his family and to enjoy our company as he loved to do, but it was all a bit too much for him. He passed on, peacefully at the end, just a couple of hours after having been baptised by his friend the Rev. Glennis.
So Dad, here's a farewell from Mum and Pam, from Judith and me, from Jenny, from Rosy and Phil, from Giselle and Michael, from Geordie and Amy, and Honey and Lorien, from your hundreds of Surf mates, and from the many many people you met and charmed and amused in your travels.
We're missing you.
December 2005
On a sunny day a few months later, the Palm Beach boat crew scattered Maurie's ashes in the surf where he'd swum for sixty years. Mum, Pam and I were there with another Maurie.
