Hazel

10 May 1948 – 14 September 1998

Date: Wed, 16 Sep 1998 18:26:20 +1000
To: bobm@agsm.edu.au
Subject: Thoughts about Hazel

Dearest Rob

I know Chris has been writing to you and he is hoping to see you in Sydney and come to Hazel’s funeral but I wanted to add my own personal thoughts for you and the children about Hazel.

Dear Josh and Zoë,

I had the opportunity to know your mother less well than many others because you lived in Sydney and we are down here on the coast at Aireys Inlet. You may remember that you have holidayed with us in summer sometimes when Rob comes down to visit his mum. When I think about Hazel I think about these words: "Those who journey before us make the path easier for us to follow" and this is what your mother has done for me. When I met with her last she was on her journey from life to death and she knew this, and and she engaged wth this knowledge in a way that enabled others around her to feel a sense of peace and a sense that she was very centred in the way she related to her family, her friends and her private thoughts. She gave people the permission in a way to realise that they needed to slow down and take life more quietly and to give more credence to caring . She was supported in this utterly by your father who also put caring and love first. So when I think of Hazel I think of love and caring and I am then able for a time to make this more important in my life. I hope and trust that as you grow older that your memories of her will have this essence within them.

Barbara

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Barb was a friend of Hazel’s and mine.