Memorial Gathering - Program

This is a copy of the program for Peter's Memorial gathering. Unfortunately, not all the wonderful desktop publishing formatting has come out well on the blog - apologies for this. I have a good pdf version, including the lovely background colouring etc that I would be very happy to email you directly if you email me or leave a comment on the blog. I also have a few hard copies over for those who you know might like a hard copy.

I will be putting the eulogy up on this blog in the next few days and also attempting to add some of the powerpoint photos too. (Last names of living people have been deleted to protect their identities. I know that Peter was very vigilant about identity theft issues and so I am carrying this on too.)

25 January 1949 – 19 September 2009

Memorial Gathering

Thursday 15 October 2009

Tuggeranong Community Hall,

Tuggeranong, A.C.T

PROGRAM

Welcome – Roberta H

To friends, Centrelink and FaHCSIA colleagues, neighbours, blog followers and those we have met through other aspects of life and the medical process: thank you for being here today to honour the memory of Peter George Garas. He would have been pleased to know you were here.

Kaddish – Roberta H

“Death has taken our beloved Peter.

Friends grieve in their darkened world.

In their silence, is lamentation.

In their tears, there is loneliness.

Lost in sorrow, may they find the presence of loving friends.

For Peter's presence and love that united us in life and which death cannot sever;

For his companionship that we shared along life's path, and which continues through the tenderness of memory;

For the gifts of his heart and mind that brought us joy and happiness and is now a precious remembrance;

For all these and more we give thanks.

(Adaptation of Opening Prayer at Peter's Funeral)

The Lord is Thy Keeper/ A Song of Ascents

I will lift up mine eyes unto the mountains, from whence cometh my help?

My help cometh from the Lord who maketh heaven and earth.

He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber.

Behold he that keepeth Israel doth neither slumber nor sleep.

The Lord is thy keeper: the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand.

The sun shall not smite thee by day nor the moon by night.

The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil; He shall preserve thy soul.

The Lord shall guard thy going out and thy coming in, from this time forth, and even for evermore.

(Psalm 121)

Memories of Peter and Social Work–

Desley H

National Manager, Social Work ,

Centrelink

Memories of Peter –

Moya D

General Manager, Education, Employment & Support Programs , Centrelink

Eulogy –

Leanne S

Funeral Blues/Stop the Clocks – Roberta H

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,

Prevent the dog from barking with the juicy bone

Silence the pianos and with muffled drum

Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.

Let the aeroplanes circle moaning overhead

Scribbling in the sky the message He is Dead;

Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,

Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.

He was my North, my South, my East and West,

My working week and my Sunday rest,

My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;

I thought that love would last for ever: I was wrong.

The stars are not wanted now: put out every one;

Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;

Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood;

For nothing now can ever come to any good.

(By WH Auden, April 1936.)

Photo tribute and music

Echo – Roberta H

Come to me in the silence of the night;

Come in the speaking silence of a dream;

Come with soft rounded cheeks and eyes as bright

As sunlight on a stream;

Come back in tears,

O memory, hope and love of finished years.

O dream, how sweet, too sweet, too bitter-sweet,

Whose wakening should have been in Paradise,

Where souls brim-full of love abide and meet;

Where thirsting longing eyes

Watch the slow door

That opening, letting in, lets out no more.

(By Christina Rossetti)

Closing – Roberta H

Mourner's Kaddish for Everyday

Build me up of memory

loving and angry, tender and honest.

Let my loss build me a heart of wisdom,

compassion for the world's many losses.

Each hour is mortal

and each hour is eternal

and each hour is our testament.

May I create worthy memories

all the days of my life.

(by Debra Cash)

Afternoon Tea

Photo Gallery and Thoughts

From “Pete's Place” (www.garpet.blogspot.com)

Having now travelled extensively around the world - I know for a certainty that the opportunities provided for my generation were far greater.... All (of my achievements) ... would have been of some joy to my parents, both of whom died, alas, before they could bear witness to the fact that their seemingly cracked idea of travelling to the ends of the earth, where they knew not the language and where their knowledge and understanding of the country and culture was virtually zero,.... paid off. (July 15, 2009)

I am sincerely grateful for the circumstances that landed my family in Australia and not the USA.

Alas, I am not well and my illness will probably put paid to any hopes for a medal for longevity, but overall I am satisfied with my life.....(November 10, 2008)

From Oesophageal Cancer Blog (www.garpet1.blogspot.com)

It's rather difficult to wake up every morning knowing that your life hangs on a knife's edge. (23 February 2009)

The saddest, funniest, most complex and yet simple things that people think, say or do are the foundations of life and its intricacies as we know them.

Being retired does have some real meaning and value. (Blog, June 27, 2009)

I know that in my life there have been many instances in which my behaviour has been inappropriate and as a result has hurt people. For this, all I can do is to say sorry - and I do. I really wish that the situations could have been otherwise. Of course, I say this now with a head that I hope is filled with changed outlooks on life, changed measures of how I look at and value others and of course how my learnt behaviours, attitudes, prejudices, abilities all mix together in this melange that calls itself me.

Each day this changes, for better or worse, as internal and external stuff impacts on what's left. I sincerely hope that it is changing for the better and that I am becoming a better person in the way that I think and go about finding those few things I can change. (Monday June 22, 2009)

My lack of ability to communicate is perhaps even more serious than the cancer. It can kill me, (but) the lack of ability to communicate easily just makes the continuation of existence miserable and THAT I think is probably worse than just dying. Amazing what I value hey? (December 13, 2008)

Being even remembered - much less appreciated - is wonderful and simply brings tears to the eyes.

There are many, and I mean many, people around the world, whose connection with me, and indeed sometimes with each other, has only taken place because they and I were interested in pursuing the exhilarating hunt for ancestors and family. I really wish I could meet and spend time with them. I certainly hope that they will use the genealogical material I have compiled in addition to the material that some of them have gathered and published on their own. (June 29, 2009)

As my life is ending, your lives are continuing and ,hopefully, can be enriched by learning about what little I did right . While perhaps, more usefully ,learning what I did not do right.
In spite of all the learning I acquired and used, I was most ignorant and stupid about my medical condition. I am now paying a price I cannot even imagine describing to you.

(From: “An unsent email to relatives in the USA “ Peter Garas, June 2009)