Eulogy for Gradpa
Narelle Roberts (Western Sydney University)
You and your sister, give the eulogy. Your Mum said you know your father doesn’t like public speaking, so you wrote it via email with your sister – send/receive/send/receive.
Eventually you both stand in front in a Rockwood chapel, the Tassie Oak walls having a post-colonial argument with the October light bouncing through stained glass windows.
Afterwards, you stand and attempt to corral your three girls and stop them climbing on the dirt mound that will eventually be tipped from a mini-dingo on top of his coffin.
His is the final of the three coffins, buried one atop the other – daughter, mother and father. No space for the son. The plot purchased that January, not as a plan but a necessity.
You place a rose, cut from the garden at Bradbury. Everyone does. You know he would tell you it was the wrong time of the year to cut at the blooms (all while complaining of the cold).
Narelle Roberts is a high school English teacher turned creative writer and poet. She is currently undertaking a Master of Creative Writing at Western Sydney University, with plans to complete a Doctor of Creative Arts. Roberts is primarily focused on writing creative non-fiction, exploring ideas of family, memory and self-reflection. She is intrigued by the differences between the internal and external stories we tell ourselves and others.
