Memories of the Farm as You Leave it Now, Forever.

Just a tip of the iceberg of memories from me to you, my beautify daughter, Julie.

It is nearly three years since my daughter lost the love of her life, her husband, Anthony. The agonizing decision to sell the farm, fortunately to wonderful dairy farmers who are next door neighbours, has been made.

The white kitchen table

The black and white kitchen tiles

The very green bathroom tiles

The deep comfy easy chairs

The grandfather clock

Anthony’s smile

The dogs

The many wooden picnic tables in the garden

The roses

The artificial tomatoes hanging in the kitchen

The fan whirring

Lunches at the white kitchen table

Driving down the farm track with anticipation of Sunday roasts

Playing table games with Anthony watching but not taking part

Playing “Thank God You’re Here” endlessly

Anthony’s smile

Admiring batch after batch of Ming’s intricate and exact drawing of the hundreds of Pokémon characters

Wondering what new hairstyle Ming would greet me with all through primary school

Anthony’s benign and constant onlooker smile

Christmas ,recreating your own childhood with bulging pillowslips at the foot  of the bed, and even more packages piled  high around the Christmas tree for an only and much beloved child, Ming.

Ming sitting on Anthony’s knee at every stage of his life, the huge teenager nearly swamping his  dad

Baby days watching Ming attempting to crawl, toddle, tip over, run in the green lawns

Looking through the trillions of baby photo books

Generations of sausage dogs

Family parties in the garden or crowded into the kitchen

Ming wishing the cousins would come and then hoping they’d go

Anthony’s amazing  75^th birthday party and the crowds of well wishers

The speech Ming made about his dad before running off and bursting into tears

Anthony’s smile

Your post wedding party when so many turned up to wish you well

The many pizza parties with truckloads of pizzas delivered

Anthony proudly showing me the once a year flowering shrub….once a year

Anthony presenting me with the best and biggest bloom from one of his amazing azalea bushes

Watching Anthony through the windows as he slowly circumnavigated the huge garden changing the hoses

Games in the old dairy with the little cousins intrigued with the circular gate

Dear old Arthur, the hired hand, and seeing you take out to his little farm hut, delicious meals on a plate

Going with you to all Ming’s primary school events

Watching Anthony, so unwell, attempt the long walk over the oval to watch Ming’s sports day

Anthony’s glee when you served him lashings of crayfish with your special thousand Island sauce

The special meals you made for every birthday of Ming or Anthony and always asking me to come

Ming doing his daily spelling homework….reluctantly

Baby Ming confined to the dog’s yard, his playpen

The splash pool and how Ming could only swim underwater

You playing footy with teenage Ming until you were crippled

When you turned the property into a bird farm, the exotic white peacocks displaying their incredible tail fans , the masses of other exotic birds, the  ducks, the fierce gander, the peahens, turkeys, pheasants, emus, the losses and tragedies, the visitors coming to look, Ming’s hatred of the poo

Gasping at the parklike vista after each mowing

You being first time Mum at my 60^th and baby Ming stealing the show

The pet miniature pig that grew to epic proportions

Ming’s two primary school amigos, always so courteous and sweet to his Grandma

Ming running to open the gates when he heard my car turn into the driveway

And doing the reverse for me when I left

The two gentle Llamas with wool to be clipped once a year

Ming’s two huge back surgeries and the anxious care as he recovered at home

Watching your face crumble as you watched the taxi carry Anthony back to the nursing home time after time, when it got too hard to drive him yourself.

Looking through dozens of baby photo albums

Taking the injured pet turkey to the vet to be fixed, just at Christmas time one year, a huge irony

Being cared for by you on the farm, as I recovered from my broken hip

Meeting Gar, the autocratic mother, who became devoted to this unique young housemaid

You sitting by Gar in the hospital as she died, something too hard for her family to do

Meeting all the older siblings and relatives over the early years, and the young ones like Simon and Christine,  Biddly and Macca

Auntie Dorothy. The dozens of times she came to stay.

When your book was published and my pride

Anthony’s beloved garden and lawn

Anthony holding toddler Ming up on the fence so the old cow, Reject could suck his fingers almost to the elbow

Anthony’s smile

You sitting cross legged in the hall, behind the closed door, while Ming mused on things important, as he sat on the loo

The way you and Anthony adored each other, he the much older man, your hero, and for him, the lovely young thing, waiting 16 years for him to notice you’d grown up to become his bride

The death of Inky, Ming’s first beloved sausage dog

Ming’s green hair in Year 4,and his comment that now the kids would respect him

Admiring the framed footy jumper presented to Ming when his number was retired with honours, as footy was no longer possible after back surgery

Sitting next to you at his final Grammar School assembly when he was called foward to receive the special Headmaster’s Award.

And these last years…..

The absence of Anthony

Oh, the absence of Anthony

And Anthony’s smile.