Dad has gone. RIP Graham Marsden Edmondson 26/6/26 - 24/7/11. 85 years old, 6 children, 11 grandchildren, 1 great grandchild. Only ever one woman in his life, his wife, the indomitable Dnelda Naree Edmondson née Cox. A clever and inventive man, loved to make things -often on a big scale. He was an engineer, mechanical, and his passions were his work, his family, music and firefighting. And of course the Navy, where he served during WW II and afterwards in the Reserve, reaching the rank of Leiutenant before he retired under pressure of work in the 1960s. Dad was of the old school, strongly believing in duty and responsibility and with a strong moral compass. He was gentle and compassionate, empathetic and generous and always liked to make others happy by allowing them to choose whenever there was a choice to be made. He was easily moved to tears as when proud of some achievement of a family member or when music was particularly glorious. Although we lost him little by little as Alzheimer's took it's toll, he still knew us through it all, testament to the strength of his dedication to his family. Because of JJ's remarkable dedication, he was able to stay home on the farm, with familiar surroundings and loved pets, till the end, dying in dignity and peace with JJ by his side, and family close by. His last sentence, some weeks before his death, was fitting. When I arrived from Samoa the day before his 85th birthday, he said to me "JJ's been doing a marvelous job".

An era has ended with his departure, the last of his generation across the extended family. A new order has begun with me at its head, the new matriarch of the clan. (Or batriarch, as John has christened me. Where is the respect, the dignity...). I was the eldest of the children and am now, at 59, the oldest surviving family member. Such an odd feeling. We had remarkable parents. I only hope I can live up to mum and dad's high standards.

First ever blog post

Been thinking about starting a blog for quite a while.  Life is interesting, and good to record it for when the old brain cells betray me, and in case anyone else is interested.  It was my birthday recently, time to take stock and explore new activities, such as recording life's excitements.  For years as a kid I had diaries, mostly full of teenage woes and thrills when I look back at them, but in recent times I have been keeping a personal online diary which records more of the activities of life.  Blogging seems the logical next step, activities and ideas, and now seems like a good time to start, especially as I now finally have working internet access here at home in Samoa. 

I live within a stone's throw of Robert Louis Stephenson's former home in Samoa, on the hill behind Apia.  For the past few weeks I have been reading his Letters from Vailima (an ebook downloaded for free on my new ipad2 - birthday pressie to self) and marvelling at the efforts he made to make a life for himself here.  He even built and used a fireplace, which I simply can't imagine ever wanting to be close to in this climate, which is hot or hotter all year (and all day) round.  His house is maintained as a museum, and you can walk to his grave on the top of Mt Vaea and admire the panoramic view of Apia.  He was named Tusitala by the locals - teller of tales - and there is a hotel named after him in town.  His connections with the world were so much slower than ours today - months on a sailing ship between letters.

I'm not as patient as RLS.   For more than a year I have been frustrated in efforts to get home internet connected.  Mind you, being connected's not cheap like home in Australia - 1.5GB per month here costs 149tala - roughly $65 back in Australia, where that amount of data is nothing.  Have to learn to be careful what I download onto the i-Pad as I have already learned to my cost that it is ridiculously easy to use up 1.5 GB.

Hopefully blogs are less data heavy to run.  If not, postings here will be well interspersed!