Snippet 19 - Thomas (Tom) Frank

 

“HAVE YOU TIME FOR A CUP OF COFFEE?”



Tom Frank[1] taught me to Fish. Tom Frank taught me to understand the relentless Terror of living under the Nazis and then the Russian Communists. And Tom Frank taught me how to enjoy “coffee with a friend”.

As often as we could in the late 1980s/early 1990s, Tom and I, accompanied by my Labrador, Sam, would wander down from Tom’s Kew home to the banks of the Yarra River to fish.

Well, only one of us fished as Tom was very insistent on my learning the correct way to knot sinkers ‘n hooks, the best way to hold a rod whilst watching the water surface, the best way to hook a fighting fish, and what recipes were to be used for its cooking, and so it went.

Sam adored Tom. Tom loved dogs, indeed all living things except Humans. So, Sam would leave my side and rest his head on Tom’s gumboots and listen attentively to all the instructions. 

After Tom’s appointed “sufficient” time for our fishing lessons, we would retrace our steps to Tom’s home where the fish were first gutted and cleaned, and then the equipment was checked and prepared for the next outing!

Then Tom would turn to me and ask, “Have you got time for a cup of coffee?” I would always reply, “If it is not too much trouble!”

Then Sam & I would sit at the kitchen table and watch the process, for it was a process – the careful, deliberative process of European hospitality – the best of tiny coffee cups would be fetched – the choice of which coffee beans would be most suitable to grind today – the hand-grinding of the beans until Tom was happy with the texture – the careful placement of the much-loved percolator on the gas ring – the selection of the best Hungarian-style biscuits to accompany the coffee – the offer of milk or cream to me (but I was down-market if I didn’t want my coffee black), and finally to uncorking of “some schnapps to celebrate a good day’s fishing”.

How I wish those very special moments were never to end, but they did!

Tom faded into Alzheimer’s in his last couple of years and soon it was over! The Fishing by the Yarra was over! The stories of Budapest and Tom’s survival were over! The sharing of Sam was over! And the rituals involved in “coffee with a friend” were over!

So, now when I ask a Visitor “Have you time for a cup of coffee”, I am often silently saying “Thank you, Tom”.


[1] Thomas Charles (Tom) Frank (1920-2000)

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