I SALUTE YOU! "I salute you" is a sign that you acknowledge a person's talent, power, position or achievement or perhaps their fame.
Yet, there are many people in our lives - ordinary people to whom we should say, "I salute you," simply because of their contribution to our lives.
Their contribution did not occur as an earth shattering event in our lives.
Often, it is simply that they gave us their support, respect, friendship and encouragement.
They became our mentors and their actions became the catalysts we needed to help us along the road to a successful and rewarding life.
As "mentors" they sought to encourage us to aim higher and achieve more than we first thought possible.
Over the past 18 months three of my mentors have passed on.
Thankfully, I was able to acknowledge their contribution to my life and to celebrate it with them and our friends.
Later, I was able to "salute their lives" when I was asked to give a eulogy at their services of remembrance.
As I sat trying to write each eulogy, I found it difficult to capture the right words to explain the very essence of these three friends.
The words choked in my throat.
There was much I wanted to say.
Even, in a time of grief, I needed to reflect on the joy that they had given so many people during their life-time.
Finally, I found three quotations which, I felt; best described their contribution to our lives.
These quotations became, for me, the theme of each eulogy.
God does not want us to do extraordinary things.
He wants us to do ordinary things extraordinarily well.
Mervyn was my father-in-law, I knew him longer than I knew my own father.
To me he was the perfect substitute.
Mervyn was an example to his family and friends.
He had a strong faith.
He was a devoted husband and father.
His marriage lasted happily for over 50 years.
He was always prepared to spend a little time talking to others, even strangers he met as a lift driver in a city bank.
He would always greet you with a smile and "How are you, mate" He was a man of simple pleasures, revelling in the company of his grandchildren, loving to sit and watch T.
V.
with them or taking them for a walk along the beach.
He was a quiet man, a patient man.
He was my mate.
He taught me the real meaning of Aussie mateship.
It was not shouting a drink at the bar or getting out with the boys.
To Mervyn mateship was giving support and being there for your mate and expecting nothing in return.
Mervyn taught me the value of family life.
He lived for the family and sought to encourage all of us to live the good life.
The virtue of family life is one we need to encourage in today's Australia.
To Mervyn, Ordinary family life was sacred.
Mervyn, I salute you for doing ordinary things extra-ordinarily well.
We all have a gift to make a difference.
Dulcie was my only living aunt.
Following the death of my mother she became the matriarch of the family.
She too, like Mervyn, believed in the virtue of ordinary family life.
She worked hard to keep my sisters and I together as part of the extended family.
Her first act after my father's death was to organize a 21st birthday party for me.
Dulcie was a GIVER.
She was always busy cooking for parties, knitting and crocheting for stalls, giving the elderly haircuts, making jam from the produce of her garden to give away to her friends, hosting fundraising events for her husband's Union and his political party and giving more 21st birthday parties.
Dulcie was a "greenie" 30 years ago before it was trendy, composting her household waste and using it to create a wonderful garden.
One of her "composting" tricks used to amuse us.
The nightly contents of the potty ended up in the garden each morning.
Dulcie sought nothing in return for her many acts of kindness.
She was content to accept thanks with her own special smile, knowing she had helped someone along the way.
Dulcie died of Alzheimer's BUT even the three years of her illness did not dull our memory of that special smile; she gave us so often, during her life.
Dulcie - you had a gift to make a difference - and you chose to use that gift.
I salute you.
Think, believe, dream and dare.
This fits my late friend, Ron, to a tee.
Ron had a life-long passion for Australian football which began at primary school.
After completing his country service as a teacher, he became involved in schoolboy Aussie Rules.
As its State Secretary, Ron began to promote our Australian game in a school sporting system dominated by Rugby League.
He would ring up school principals in the 60s and 70s and ask them why they did not allow Aussie Rules in their schools.
He organized many night carnivals and regional championships as well as tours of country areas to promote schoolboy Aussie Rules.
His first great adventure was to hire, from the Queensland Railways, an old wooden sleeper carriage for a trip to play games in North Queensland.
On his own, he organized and financed a team and then hooked the sleeper to an old mail train and headed for Cairns.
At each country centre his sleeper was uncoupled and used as the team's "hotel.
" Later, we discovered that "footy" was played in New Zealand.
So together in 1977, we took 31 boys, our wives and children on a great two week adventure around New Zealand.
We toured the islands and played games in Christchurch, Auckland and Wellington.
Parts of our game at Wellington were telecast on a National Sporting Program, NZ TV.
Around 1980, the girls in our schools were pressuring us to organize a girl's competition.
Finally, we gained permission from our principals to organise some "friendly" matches.
Ron announced it to his school parade at 9am one morning and by the end of morning tea, he had signed up 51 girls.
So we organized a girls' competition over several years.
As a teacher, Ron "affected eternity.
We can never know where his influence will stop.
" Ron and I shared many adventures in our quest to provide an opportunity for our students to play our national game.
His enthusiasm kept me going when we seemed to be up against overwhelming odds.
But our work led to the thrill of being invited, as the guests of the Airline, TAA, to watch Melbourne play Richmond one rainy Saturday afternoon at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
To see his first Victorian Football League game live that afternoon was one of Ron's greatest lifetime thrills and a fitting reward for his efforts.
Ron had a dream He believed in it And he dared to make it happen.
Ron, I salute you.
Mervyn, Dulcie and Ron were not famous in any way outside their circle of family and friends.
Yet they had a major impact on all those people who crossed their path.
The message I chose to leave with you is that it is important to acknowledge the contribution other people make to our lives.
It is never too soon to let them know you feel privileged to have known them.
And when they pass from this life it is important to help celebrate the good things and not allow grief to blot out the great memories, for without their impact on us our lives would have been poorer.
Mervyn, Dulcie and Ron live on in the lives of those they have left behind.
We are their legacy and we must carry on, in their place, to make the world a better place.
We must do ordinary things extraordinarily well.
We must use our gifts to make a difference and we must dare to have a dream and dare to make it happen.
Mervyn, Dulcie, Ron, I Salute You!