The Speech

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.