Chapter 28 - Epilogue
There is so much more that I could write about: my family, my dear wife, my children and grandchildren, the people I have worked with both in business and in Church, many wonderful friends, several who have been very close to me at various times during my life and helped me be the person I am, dreams both waking and sleeping, more about my boyhood and early life and of my parents, our relaxed life here at Bateau Bay, our slowly deteriorating health, my religious beliefs, my hopes in this life and the life to come. But perhaps I have said enough just now. I really set out to provide something for my family to read regarding my life and the lives of my parents and of those who had gone before them, because I was afraid that if I didn't set it down now it would be too late and the little I have recorded would be lost forever as has so much of our family history.
In writing this memoir I have felt both frustration and regret that I didn't find out more about the lives and experiences of my parents and grandparents-particularly my Father's early life at school and on the farm-when I had an opportunity to do so. That opportunity has now gone forever.
The other regret is that so many of the things that were in our home when I was a youth have been destroyed and lost forever. I remember account books and minute books, bundles of letters, files of receipts, boxes of photographs that were stored on a shelf above the kitchen door at Kulnura. All gone! I have mentioned some of the things that were stored at “Currawong” when I lived there with Grandma Hunt during my High School days, and the small library of books at Grandpa Pegler's home “Norford” when I lived there as a youth. All gone!
At least a few of Grandpa Pegler's things have survived and a few of my Parent's keepsakes, a love-letter or two, a birth certificate, a precious memory in print, a collection of photographs, including Mother's albums. And there are, I am sure, still other records that have been preserved and which may yet come to light. These I will continue to seek.
As a companion to this volume I have put into a folder some of the things I have just mentioned and some documents from other sources in the hope that someone will think enough of them to preserve them and pass them on to someone younger after I and my generation have gone. Mine has not been a pioneering life like those of my Great-Grandparents, but perhaps it has been useful to consolidate some of their achievements and to pass on their genes to generations yet unborn.
As I sit here typing these notes I can hear the cicadas, the currawongs and the whip-birds in the trees outside. I look up and the eucalypt forest with a few Angophera Red Gums and lots of Burrawong palms comes almost to our back door. It is not hard to imagine that I am back in the scene in which I was brought up on Mangrove Mountain, forty kilometres and fifty years away. A strange mixture of contentment and nostalgia creeps over me. My throat contracts while my eyes grow moist. Jean brings me coffee and a slice of her boiled fruit cake and I am back in the here and now. Yes, life has been good to me!
