What do you say to sum up a man’s life, to encapsulate a
lifetime of memory and events in 5 minutes? How do you do justice to a lifetime
of achievements, to a man who fought in a war that I’ve only read about in
history books? Planted trees that I will never see? Walked in places that I
didn’t know existed? I’m not sure I can do Ben’s life justice but I will tell
you what I remember, the things that stand out to me and my impressions.
My name is Rowan
Thorpe, I’m 32 And Ben’s Eldest Grandchild, the son of David, Ben’s eldest
Child. I have been asked to speak on behalf of my Brother Hayden and My sister
Alexia.
Ben was a great man,
he had many achievements, he was a forester, a walker, a soldier and a business
man. But this is not what he meant to me or to Hayden or Alexia. To us he was
just Ben, our grandfather, the one who used to bounce us on his knee (we were
all much smaller at one time). One of my favourite memories of Ben was the
interest that he always showed in us as grandchildren. I’m quite sure now, that
my lego rocket was not worthy of the attention he gave it but still the
attention was given, he even let me win a few times at chess or draughts, and
tolerated me being noisy during the 6 o’clock news… Once.
Ben kept his emotions
close to his chest – but when were around we were always greeted with an
upturned smile and a laugh, as we grew older we graduated to a firm handshake.
Ben had a great sense of humour and I loved his dry chuckle. We spent many
Christmases with Nanna and Ben at Korokoro and we got into plenty of trouble. I
remember on more than one occasion Ben having to retrieve a cricket ball from
the bushes on the hill.
Living in Hamilton recently, made it hard for me to come
down and see Ben during the last months of his life, When we eventually did
make it down he was unable to see us for different reasons at different times
so one of the last memories That I have of Ben is visiting Him and Nanna at
their current home. As you know Ben started to lose his impressive physical prowess
before he went into the hospital, and as
for me I was never the athlete in the family – Hayden was the runner, but on
this occasion Ben and I seemed to meet in the middle and he took me for a tour
of the area surrounding his home. As we walked around the complex he made a
point of telling me something about each of the trees, when they were planted, what they
were, when some of them would bloom. I realised that this was the first time
that I had been on such a walk with him, the first time he had shared that part
of his life with me. Ben grew up in a very different world from mine, a world
where the combination of playing cowboys and Indians and a little brother could
change your name for life from Alec to Ben to the point that no one at your
workplace recognises the name Alec.
But in saying that I learnt recently that Ben was a bit of a geek like I am when
he served in the army – A Radio operator, a man who played with buttons and
dials. I was recently told of a tale of a medal that ben had earned, it was for
a centenary or something similar, and he had had to pay the princely sum of $3
for it. This medal was found some years later with a note written next to it;
N.B. Never worn, - they spelt my name Ben Throp. That’s about all I know of
Ben’s war career. He didn’t talk about it much but I was proud to help him set
up his computer and e-mail to organize the Korean Veteran’s association’s
reunion.
All though we knew
that Ben was declining for quite some time, e will all miss Ben, and we will
all miss him for different reasons, but we know that he has gone to be with
God, his creator and saviour to be eternally with Christ where in his new body
I’m sure he will insist on walking everywhere. The Streets are all gold. He’ll
probably want to put in a swamp, or plant some trees.
