We have been back on the boat in Panama for a month now. It seems hard to believe we were in Australia at all. My mother, Margaret, died 2 months ago. She was 89 and had had a long and full life - from her early years designing and painting for repertory companies in Britain, to the wilderness and heat of Humpty Doo in northern Australia and 3 small children, and finally to Canberra. She was always drawing or painting or writing and always interested and engaged with old and new friends and her grandchildren. And she was always there for us.
I find it inconceivable that someone who has always been in my life, who I always returned to, was a focal point for us and a conduit to the past, is no longer there. So, just for a moment and because we are so far away -
Dearest Mama,
Remember on my last trip home we visited the old Lanyon homestead. I wheeled you along that gravel path lined with giant pines and over knobbly grass down to the oak tree - you did very well to hold on. We had lunch under the tree and later meandered home through the streets of south Canberra recalling old haunts and people. It was a lovely day.
I can picture you now in your chair looking out to Mount Ainslie and it's grey eucalypts and ring of morning fog. I love you very much and will miss you for ever. Kate.