Thursday August 3, 2006 Monday August 7, 2006
Macquarie Park Crematorium
3.00pm
Magnolia Chapel
Cnr Delhi & Plassey Roads, Macquarie Park
CHAPMAN, TRIXIE
Late of Sydney
Much loved wife of Frank (deceased). A loving mother of Suzette, Janice, Nancy & John. Grandmother of Garth, Kim, Sean, David, Bridgette, Vanessa, Tamzin, Jomo, Byrne & Daniel and a Great Grandmother to Clara & Grace.
The relatives and friends of "TRIXIE" are invited to attend her funeral service to be held at the Macquarie Park Crematorium on Monday 7th August 2006, appointed to commence at 3.00pm.
Its very hard to put into words what you feel when someone who has been a constant presence in your life is suddenly no longer there. Knowing my Nana was a pleasure and a total joy.
She had an interest in life and an optimism that was contagious. A huge howling laugh and a gift for storytelling, she was a dream of a grandmother.
She did have a wily streak however, luring her grandchildren into games of scrabble from an early age, easing us in with sweeteners of 100-point head starts, and in my case starting a lifelong addiction for which I hold her totally responsible!
Playing back-to-back games for hours on end with her was never a chore, and that woman had the stamina of an ox when it came to scrabble!
I can remember bed-time stories when staying in Durban that she would end with "to be continued tomorrow night..." and I would lie awake happily imagining what was going to happen in tomorrow's instalment. Her storytelling became more concrete when she wrote books for all of her grandchildren, illustrating them with photographs that she had double exposed and manipulated to create fantastically bizarre imagery, which she would base her stories around.
She told stories of our ancestors which I found amazingly exotic and exciting to listen to, and even documented them into more illustrated books that I would pore over whenever I saw her.
I am hugely proud and blessed to have had such a wonderful woman for my grandmother - someone who loved to get up to see the sun rise every morning. She enjoyed life to the full. She was deeply loved and will always be deeply missed.
Trixie Chapman, my Nana, was an amazing asset to this world. What she leaves behind is a legacy of unbending decency, glorious humour, an unquenchable interest in everything around her, and above all an almost super-human courage to do what she knew was right.
Throughout my life I have always used her as a role model to help me cope with fear and uncertainty. And what a role model she was.
I remember her making a big joke of it first day I was taller than her as I had just had my ninth birthday.
I remember rolling on the floor of the house in Durban with her and Tamzin on a perfect sunny South African afternoon, laughing so much about a game we were playing that none of us could breathe.
I remember her trying to train our wimp of a Labrador to be a guard-dog by running to the door barking whenever the doorbell rang. It worked in the end, but we had far fewer visitors for a couple of months.
There are just too many wonderful and treasured memories to put down on paper, though I think the most poignant for now would be from my visit to Sydney 3 years ago.
While sitting in Sue's flat and playing the most "gloves are off" game of scrabble I have ever known with her, Sue and Esther, she gently put her hand on mine and leaned across to me.
So that no-one else could hear she said to me "Byrne, do you know something? I'm not frightened of dying you know? Not at all. I am ready to just relax and let my soul quietly drift off into the wind. What I am nervous of is losing my mind and forgetting things."
With a knowing look and a slight nod she turned back to trying to invent a believable sounding seven-letter word with an X and a Q in it, but after just a few minutes she again rested her hand on mine and leaned across to me.
"Byrne", she said, "do you know something? I'm not frightened of dying you know? Not at all. What I am nervous of is losing my mind and forgetting things."
She stared intently at me for around five seconds to see if I would react, and then cracked her cheekiest grin and broke into her infectious little giggle.
She will always be with us, and I will always count myself as greatly honoured to have known her and loved her as much as I do.
Mom was Tiny in stature and huge in presentation. I remember her courage - standing up for the oppressed in South Africa, quietly supporting the little African triplets for so many years, and standing up to injustice wherever and whenever she found it.
And Wow! She also played a mean game of scrabble and took no prisoners!!
As the "in-law" in the Harris family, I share in the immense loss my family is experiencing. Someone central to our lives for so long is no longer with us.
It is to Mums everlasting credit that our recollections have invariably ended in laughter. It was her zest for life that shines through the sorrow, a legacy that will always remain with us and with everyone who was privileged to know her.
