Michael Harcourt Labone.....My Brother.

The family have gathered here today to talk about Michael, and to provide memories for each other, that will fill in some of the spaces that we all have about him and his life.  I hope that we can paint a picture of the boy and the man, and with the help of the Photo slide show that Tony has put together, that is playing on front of you now, and with our own collective memories, we will get to know more about him in a very special way.

I didn't know Michael the Man, or the Teenager, but we shared a very special segment of time together, that was ours alone.  Michael and I had a different birth Mother to the rest of the family, so I remember him as a little boy, and up to the age of about 14, when I left home to go Nursing, and later to get married.  This is the time that I can share with you. 

When I was about 3 and a half and Michael was 19 months younger, the marriage fell apart and our Mother left.  Dad  moved us in with his Mother, Katie Labone and we were cared for there for approximately 2 years.  I have memories of Michael and I playing with Nanny's Button tin that were a source of great wonder to us, with all the gold and fancy trims on them, that came from her beautiful gowns, like the one  that you can see on the CD.  We would tip them onto the table and arrange them in groups, and play shops with them.  But the thrill was in the looking and the sorting of them.  When Nanny died, and we went to her house to take mementos, I went straight to the Button Tin, and I still have it today.  I have bought some buttons from it for you both as a memory of Mike the little boy.  To other people they are just buttons, but to him they were special things.

I can remember people always commenting on Michael's dark eyes and long eyelashes.  I was so jealous of those eyes, and didn't think it was fair that he got them and I didn't.  You only have to look at his childhood photos to see  how amazing those eyes were.

When Dad married Isla McKenzie, we left Nanny's home and went to live in Rodrigo Rd, Kilbirnie with Grandad Mckenzie and the Aunts. I can remember Aunty Moira saying that when she saw Michael with his little grey tweed coat with the black buttons on, and his dark eyes, she called him "Currant Bun".  We were given a wonderful time by this extended family, and I remember the stories that were told by Grandad and the Aunts, that were magical to us. Tony was born here too, so it was a very full house, but a very nurturing environment.

Michael was given a carpentry set for his birthday one year, and it had a hammer, saw, screwdriver etc in, and he loved it.  Grandad used to give him pieces of wood and nails, from his basement workshop, and Michael would spend hours hammering nails into the wood, and making different shapes.  I used to watch this with awe, and was quite convinced that Michael was capable of building us a house...I never doubted him.

One Xmas Eve after the adults had gone to bed, and the presents were put out on the end of our beds, I woke up with excitement and saw my first sleeping doll with blonde hair, who I called Mary-Ann.  I looked over at Michael's bed and I could see that he had a scooter, so I woke him up to show him.  His face was an absolute picture when he saw it, and in the early hours of the morning, he was riding this scooter up and down the length of the hall, until the adults came and firmly "shooshed" us and put us back to bed, but I suspect that a lot of smiling went on.  As he went to sleep, his arm was firmly hanging on to this beloved toy, and I believe that is where his love of bikes and cars first began. 

We then moved to Karori, into our new house, which was in a very rural area, with lots of paddocks around, and we loved it.  We lived in gumboots a lot, and did wonderful things like building forts in the bush, catching crawlies in McKelvie's farm creek, swinging on a big rope swing off the big Pines at the back of our house, out over the gully.

Michael and I being the eldest always seem to have many chores to do, as the other children started to come along.  He mowed the lawns, and I trimmed all the edges.  We cleaned the family shoes at the weekend, and I darned the socks on Saturday nights.  There was always a baby to be rocked in the old cane Plunket pram, as Mum was cooking tea, and then taking them out in the pushchair later.  I think we did a lot of muttering about this.  "Not fair"  etc, etc.

We would later go off to the Saturday afternoon Matinee's at the Regal Ttheatre in the shopping centre.  This was a magic time.  Sixpence to get in, and sixpence to spend at the dairy.  We would lose ourselves in the adventures of Roy Rogers, Gene Autry and Trigger, Marx Brothers, Three Stooges, and oh how we loved Flash Gordon, the continuing serial.  We would be "abuzz" all the way home with how we thought Flash would get out of his weekly predicaments, and would look forward to the next Saturday.

We played with the Dyers and the Strongs  after tea and at weekends.  Mr Dyer was a solo dad with 2 boys and 2 girls, and he and Mum had a whistle signal to call their families home.  We would be riding our bikes, or playing Hopscotch, knucklebones, marbles, or in the Forts, and we would hear a whistle, and have to work out whose it was, and if Mum had to whistle twice, and we didn't come, we were in trouble.

Michael also had a friend called Oliver, and the 2 of them used to get rubbish tin lids, and wooden swords, and play Ivanhoe all over the backyard.  They would do this for hours, and drive everybody crazy with the noise of it.

We had a Polio Eperdemic scare when we were young, and all the schools were shut down, and we had to do Correspondence lessons at home with Mum.  Janette Dyer, my best friend used to come to our house to do them as well, and Mum was very disciplined about playtimes, and lunch, and she ran it like a proper school.  Michael found it hard to sit still at home for so long.  

I left home at 16 to go Nursing, and later to get married, so Michael and I started to lose touch with one another, but always at the back of my mind in later years, I always knew that in Sydney, Australia was "my brother".

I made a visit there many years later with my partner at the time, and Sheila and Michael gave us a key to the apartment at Narrabeen so we could be independent.  It was my first trip to Sydney, and it was a wonderful experience, but little did I know then that that would be the last time that I would see my brother.  

Our family take great comfort in the fact that the years that Michael and Sheila spent together were very happy for them both, and although his and Sheila's health wasn't always the best, being with his "Soulmate' was enough for him.  Many people in this life don't get to have that kind of love and companionship, and we are so glad about that.

Thank you Sheila for loving and caring for our brother, and Adrian, we know how much he lovved you, and how proud he was of you and your children.  We all have our own sense of loss about Mike's passing, and everyone deals with death in different ways, and you will need to find your way and manage it as best as you can, and hopefully with support.  Don't be afraid to ask for it.

The other members of our Family really wanted to be here today, but we have an elderly Mother and Aunt back home, who need supportive care and attention, and there is a Family Network in place to do this, as Mum in particular, cannot be left to cope on her own, so they are staying back to do this, but their hearts and thoughts are here with you today as they help Mum celebrate her 92nd Birthday.  My daughter Linda, and husband Ron and children in Canberra would have liked to have been here as well, but with young families it's not always possible, and they send their love as well for this remembering of Mike's passing,.

With all our memories here today, I hope we have helped to paint a picture of Michael the little boy, the teenager, and the man, and your memories are just as important for us so we can fill in the gaps.  Goodbye Michael, rest easy my brother