December is a significant month when you have a birthday and Christmas all within a few weeks. Then add work break-ups and kids on holidays and I usually do my best to hide from as much of it as I can.
I was contemplating what to write about this week after having a nice birthday lunch at The Shed at Palmwoods with Old Mate and some water dragons on the veranda – one of which continually stared at me and I think liked me looking back. He had never seen a head like it.
I wondered if I should write about that and the significance of where we were – being an old railway goods shed where, back in the day, my dad would bring his pineapples to load on the train and sometimes buy me a pie up the road for the trip home.
I thought about writing about what a great job the Ryan family has done with it and how it oozes history.
As I was throwing all this around in my empty vessel of a head, a song came on the radio: How Do I Say Goodbye by Dean Lewis and the second verse hit me right between the eyes: “So how do I say goodbye to someone who’s been with me for my whole damn life? You gave me my name and the colour of your eyes. I see your face when I look at mine. So how do I, how do I, how do I say goodbye?”
I said goodbye to my mum Edna this week 13 years ago, which, of course, is another reason December is a significant month for me.
She grew up in Palmwoods, came there in 1922, and left for Eudlo about 1950. So, Palmwoods was a significant part of her life, as was the train station when she used to travel to Brisbane to work in the war.
So, that lunch became more important to me than I first thought. Not only did I share it with someone I love very much and a few lizards, I am pretty sure mum would have been there as well.
As I listened to the song, this line stood out: “You always saw the best in me. Right or wrong, you were always on my side.” That was so true of Edna. Those eyes of hers were a bit rose-coloured for her baby boy, as she always called me.
So this column is about a significant month and a reminder to hold your family and your friends close and tight so that when the time comes to say goodbye, you have plenty of good memories – just like me. Love to you all.
Ashley Robinson is chairman of the Sunshine Coast Falcons and Sunshine Coast Thunder Netball, and a lifetime Sunshine Coast resident.
