EULOGY FOR OUR MOTHER,
VIVA KATHLEEN SAUNDRY
(Eulogy written by Karen & Warren Maloney and delivered
by Peter Saundry on Thursday, 10th January 2014) [1]
It is, of course, impossible to tell you everything
that our Mother has meant to each one of us. But we are fortunate that we can
share together this celebration of her life – that we as her 5 children with
our partners, her grandchildren and great grandchildren have the family
opportunity to celebrate a remarkable life and to honour her memory.
There are many things that characterised Viva, none
the least of which was that she was born and raised a Queenslander. Hence,
although she loved cricket, she struggled all her life to fully grasp
Australian Rules Football and the Victorian passion for talking about Sport.
She was born in the
family home in Guy Street, Warwick – the 1st female grandchild of
the strong farming families – the Presbyterian Munros and the Catholic
Brosnans. Indeed, her parents, Jim, and Mary Magdalene (Doll) Munro were the
link in bringing those Warwick religious views together and Viva was therefore
special.
Viva 1922
Her father, Daddy Jim, suffered severely from TB
and heart conditions and the family moved to and from Brisbane and Warwick a
couple of times during her childhood, chasing work and better health.
Whilst she was a child and teenager of the
Depression years, the family had some luck when Daddy Jim was appointed State
Secretary of the new Master Butchers’ Association. Her Mum, Mother Doll, also
gained income through dressmaking and cake catering.
So, the middle to late 1930s was a happy time for
Viva including holidays with her best friend, Maisie, in the guesthouses on the
emerging Gold Coast.
As an only child until the age of 17, it was a
pleasant shock to Viva (and by the way to Mother Doll) when her sister entered
their lives in 1939 – the parents aged 41 & 39 years, Viva 17 and a newborn
baby, Jennifer Robin.
At the same time, Viva was assisting her Mother in
establishing a Frock Shop and beginning her own career as an assistant
pharmacist.
Now this career move was very fortuitous for us
children as many of you may know. As a family, our respective ailments have
enabled many pharmacists to travel widely with good superannuation. But it was
Mum who constantly negotiated the medications and supervised the treatments –
even though some like me attempted to hide our tablets under the lounge room
rug rather than taking them.
At age 20, Viva
joined the WRAAF and was posted to the Townsville RAAF Base in 1943. It was
there that her greatest fortunate moment happened. Through the match-making
insistence of a mutual friend, Bob Savage, she met Warrant Officer Percy
Saundry – and there was no looking back.
Viva 1943
Of course, Dad had to work damn hard to woo her
with gifts of late Friday night Fish ‘n Chips, or frozen grapes when she had
Dengue fever, or ice cream on the moonlit beach. The defences were lowered, and
a lifetime love developed.
But, as we know, you can love a person but some
particular times you wished you didn’t – as per the time of Perc’s 1st
visit to meet the parents, Jim & Doll, when he surprised Doll and viva
whilst they were washing the dishes by appearing with a nugget-blackened face
singing “Mammy” on his knees.
Post war, Viva followed Perc to Melbourne, gained
secretarial work with Myer Melbourne and learning to understand the culture of
the Brunswick/Flemington family of Saundrys.
St Patrick’s Day 1949, Perc and Viva were married
in this very church. Their first married night together was at the George Hotel
in St Kilda (by the way Perc was sent out for fish ‘n chips scavenging there
also).
Percy and Viva 1949
Not much money and
dependent on Dad’s wage with MLC Assurance, they spent a year in Sydney, then a
few weeks on a make-shift bed in Flemington, before finally getting their own
house in Coburg.
And then we lot started coming along – Karen in
1950, Terry in 1951, Me in 1955, Leanne in 1958 and the very cute youngest,
Paun, in 1962.
These were hard years as well as happy ones for
Viva. Her health was not strong at times and she suffered loneliness as she
tried to adapt to Melbourne. Dad was working 2 jobs and it was only on Sundays
that the family could be a complete unit.
But as you know, the parents may think that a
Sunday picnic at Eltham or Daylesford might be fun but Karen wanted to be home
to see “Robin Hood”, Terry was consumed by the Top 40 countdowns, I was either
coughing my heart out or preferring to sit on shop counters telling jokes,
Leanne found every sort of animal to bring home as pets (some lost, some not),
and Paun was very happy being the independent spirit.
The family moved from Coburg to West Brunswick in
1958 and later in 1970 Viva got her wish when we moved to Strathmore, which she
had always liked. In between times, we were in and out of hospitals and/or
developing allergies to everything from soap to bee stings, hating or loving
school, and developing the peculiar personalities that make each of us so
loveable. Each of us has pushed the boundaries of health and life-styles – not
easy for committed parents to handle.
Throughout all this, Mum was an amazing and
generous provider so that our birthdays and celebrations were highlighted by
our favourites from lemon meringue pie to jam roly-poly to hedgehog to
marshmallows and when Mum was ill or having another baby; Dad did the best
fry-up of chips and sausage rissoles.
Mum also had a wonderful gift of storytelling so
that her encounters with tradespeople and deliverers, friends and extended
family gave the bases for humorous stories that brightened our time both in the
telling and re-telling.
Viva was a great reader and this model of reading
has been an axis in all our developments. She was also very creative and could
sew, knit, crochet, embroider, do tapestry, macramé, leatherwork, and painting.
She was a fighter for her children, not scared of
tackling Mother Superior Nuns or patronising Doctors. We were never fighting
alone. She was with us.
June 1982 was Viva’s saddest moment when Dad died –
too young and too quickly. The next 3 or 4 years were in many ways a fog for
her as she tried to make sense of a life without him. It had been the deepest
of loves for nearly 40 years and now she was like her own mother, a widow.
She tried to escape to Anglesea (long days staring at
the sea) and eventually re-focused and ventured overseas, something which Dad
had never desired.
Viva was able to
experience Hong Kong, Europe, and the United Kingdom with family members and in
travel groups. She could spend time with her sister, Jennifer (known in the
family as Jeff); her husband, Kevin, and their children, Leigh, and Michael,
and meet head-on the challenges of new people.
Jan McClean & Karen Maloney & Viva 1990
After the travel, Viva committed to herself to
forging a wonderful home partnership with her daughter, Leanne, and together
they created a life in Willonga Street, Strathmore. It began as Mother/Daughter
and developed into a remarkable 24/7 caring role by Leanne.
From the mid-1990s, Viva’s health deteriorated on
many fronts from her spinal injuries to continual infections to sight loss. For
the last 10 years, Leanne has been nothing less than heroic in her dedication,
skill, and determination to give Viva, our Muddah, the best possible life.
Hospitals, doctors, therapists, Veteran Affairs bureaucrats were tackled in
both wooing and battle and the “best for Viva” was always the goal. Thank you,
Lal.
And so today, after
91 years and 10 months, it is the conclusion of that journey of that remarkable
woman, our mother.
In our private conversations today and from hence,
we will no doubt share with each of you our family stories, our times of
laughter, and our times of gratitude.
We are so very grateful that we have had this
wonderful Mother.
Viva 2002
We are glad that she is now at peace without
illness, without pain and without having to worry about her children. All the
boxes were ticked. All the plans and tireless work have fallen into place. We
celebrate you, Mum, and are very proud to be your children.
Thank you everyone for being with us today. Your
presence and the messages over the last few days have really helped. We will
have a chance after the service to thank you personally. Then, the family will
accompany Viva for a Private Burial service at Fawkner where she will join Perc
forever.
On behalf of all her children, our partners, her
grandchildren, her great grandchildren, her friends, our friends, and families,
I will finish with the words of Helen Keller:
“What we have once enjoyed
we can never lose.
All that we love
deeply, becomes a part of us.”
Viva's children - Terry & Karen & Peter & Leanne & Pauleen
Comments
Post a Comment