Page 9 - Gwen Landsberry - Eulogies

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And she defended me when North Sydney Boy’s strongly advised I
repeat Year 11 because my academic record wasn’t exactly turning
heads: It was…towards the EXIT sign!

To channel my energy, Mum encouraged me to play tennis. Tennis was
big in our family, in fact Mum and Dad had met on the tennis court, so
all three of us kids played. Naturally, Mum saw this as an opportunity to
encourage sportsmanship - which wasn’t my strong suit.
My competitive nature often reared its head on the tennis court and
occasionally Mum was at the receiving end of it – literally.

I remember branding her with a tennis ball once because I’d heard it
was a sure fire way of winning the point.
It was also a sure fire way of getting sent off the court so while I won the
point, which I stubbornly maintained, I lost the match.

As one of 12 children who lived through both the Great Depression and
the Second World War, Mum was “old school” in that if she wanted
something, she had to work for it, earn it, make it, wait for it… or all of
the above.

When her family wanted a tennis court - they built one. When Mum
wanted nice clothes for her children - she sewed them. When she
wanted us to have a summer holiday at Avoca Beach each year- she
worked to pay for it.
(As most of you know, Dad wasn’t a fan of spending money so Mum had
to be resourceful.)

Mum passed on this characteristic to her kids, evident when Rob and I
desperately wanted a bike, so we scavenged for parts and built one.
Mum was always incredibly grateful for everything she had and much of
this gratitude was built on The Three Fs: Family, Friends and Faith. Mum
treated every day, every gathering and pretty much everyone she met
as special.
And that’s a gift.

But perhaps the greatest gift Mum gave was her time. She had time for
everyone. And the older she grew… the more she gave.

Mum and Claire often gave their time together. They volunteered to
clean the altar and tend the flowers at St Thomas’s.
They served meals at the Matthew Talbot Hostel for Homeless Men.

They organised dinners and morning teas for the local parish priests.
And Mum taught scripture at Willoughby Primary school for more years
than I can remember.