One Day Before Christmas

A few days prior to Christmas 2008, my father-in-law’s mother passed away. Reaching the grand old age of 93 is quite formidable, so I was happy to attend though not directly related. Although she had been flown to Adelaide for some check-ups, her health deteriorated considerably so her family decided to fly her back to her family-home of Kingscote on Kangaroo Island. Story says that she passed away moments after arriving back at the nursing home, supposedly holding her strength until her arrival back to somewhere comfortable.

Her four boys arranged everything smoothly and we all attended the funeral one day before Christmas. Although a somber occasion, it was the perfect opportunity for many people who rarely each other throughout the year to visit, yarn, laugh and reflect.

I’d been asked to take my camera, but I had it packed before anyone asked! The funeral was most interesting, but I won’t dwell on that subject. Every family has it’s own way of celebrating life and death, yet I choose not to discuss it. No, it’s nothing unusual. It’s a religion, a god-fearing crowd, that sings hymns and discusses the better part of a persons life, all the normal ceremony. But I feel that it’s a private event for every family. So I chose not to take any photographs of grave-stones nor caskets descending. Not good taste!

The downside of the day was that many of us failed to put on any sun-screen. Subsequently my face, forehead and scalp are quite red. I expect that in a few weeks time my peeling skin is going to resemble leprosy mixed with dandruff. Not pretty at all!

We left home around 5.00am to catch the 7.30am boat from Cape Jervis to Penneshaw. Thankfully the ocean was as smooth as glass, so the trip went faster than expected. After the days events we left on the 5.30pm boat, though this time with a myriad of my wife’s family who’d arrived a day earlier.

Upon my flickr gallery are those photographs that simply show the journey from morning to evening.

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