Monday, January 19, 2009

Tribute to Dad

Today marks 10 years since my dad, "Graeme John Morrison" passed away. I thought I would pay homage to him by posting a few photos.

Dad was born at the Royal Women's Hospital in Melbourne, Australia on the twenty-fourth of May 1939. He was born in the year that marked the beginning of World War Two. He was one of three children of his parents Quinton and Annie Morrison and he shared his child hood with his brother Lindsay (dec) and his sister Jean. He grew up in Kew, his father was a policeman and later in life a maintenance carpenter at the Australian Paper Mills, his mum was a seamstress.

He was educated at Kew Primary School and then went to Swinburn Tech where he barely made it to the of 14 before he was off to take on the world. His first job was at the Jex factory before moving over to Model Dairy in Kew. He eventually found his neiche in sales and for the rest of his working life that was what he did.

Dad was a real good looker with a large and fast Triump motor bike when he met Melvie one evening at a local coffee lounge in Preton. Dad was nearly nineteen when he married Melvie at the local church in Hawthorn in 1958. He took her off to Phillip Island for their honey moon in his pride and joy, his little Ford Prefect car.

Here is a photo of Mum and Dad in their younger days.



This is another photo of Dad and his sister Jean. Taken at his brother Lindsay's engagement party.





Their first home was in McCrae Road, Rosanna where they lived and raised a family for thirteen or so years before finally settling in their comfortable home in Appleblossom Court, Viewbank. With the passing of time Dad was proud to become a father. Dad to Sharon {me}, Debbie, Craig and Lorel. he watched them all grow up and mature into fine adults of whom he could be truly proud.

It was no coincidence that Graeme was often called "Big Fella", he was a big man in more ways than one. He was a character, larger than life, he was brimming over with the love of life, full of fun and laughter, loud, boisterous and often just a tiny bit outrageous.

In his early days he was a pretty good golfer and all his life he loved to fish. he developed a love of boats and camping.The holidays spent at Mansfiled on the banks of Lake Eildon were a source of much happiness. He patiently taught all us kids and all our friends to water ski and to drive the boat. Later in life the family fishing trips to Mitta were another important part of Dads love of the outdoors.

Here are a few more recent photos of Dad






Tonight all the family are gathering at one of dads favourite pubs, to pay tribute to him. He loved to drink at the "Old England Hotel" Est 1848 in Heidelberg. I recently found a post card of the hotel, here is what it looks like today.




Thanks for looking

Cheers
Shazza

5 comments:

  1. Hi Shazza,

    What a lovely tribute to your Dad. Your blog is great. Hope to get more of a chance to look at more of your post soon.

    Sharon

    ReplyDelete
  2. hi shazza,
    it was great to be reminded of what a great dad we had, and the many fun times we shared. i miss him so much
    deb

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Shazza,
    What a wonderful tribute to your dad! It is obvious that you loved him very much. God bless your family as you remember him I hope that whilst it will be sad you have a good time reminiscing over the good times of the past.
    Love to you all
    ALI

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi Shazza...what a nice post. It just cannot get better than this...the way you gave tribute to your dad. Commendable post.

    Dear, need your valuable feedback for;

    www.octandigital.com

    Regards,
    Mehta (India)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hi Shazza, lovely tribute to your Dad.
    See you next time,
    Sue (from Flutterbuys)

    ReplyDelete