Oakey Golf Club - In Memory of those who have passed on

EULOGY - As read by his brother Clive Greet

Garry Edwin Greet was born in Rosewood Qld on 21st July, 1941 to our parents Cecil and Isabella Greet. He was the youngest of 3 boys, and 2 girls.  Sadly our older brother Bill, and two sisters Rosemary and Thea have all pre-deceased him, so for the past few years there has only been Garry and myself of our original family.

Our mother, Isabella, passed away when Garry was only 13 years old, and this was a difficult time for us all. Later, Dad married a family friend, Anne, who had 4 children, Jim, Kitty, Elsa and Reg, so the family swelled to 9 in total. The two families had been friends for many years so as one unit they all bonded wonderfully and became a very close-knit family group.

I remember that when Dad and Anne (who was known fondly to us Greets as “Aunty”) were married, Garry and I spent two weeks in charge of the farm at “Windy Ridge”. I had been away from home working for some years, but Garry was the one who had the greater knowledge of the farm. Luckily for us, everything went well, the milking got done, the pigs got fed and the chooks got locked up every night. I’m not sure who did the cooking, but we survived.

“Windy Ridge” was a great place for us kids to grow up. It was a dry-land dairy farm so there was not much money, but plenty of love. As we grew older, we had the freedom of not only the farm but also the surrounding district, and we roamed far and wide. We had horses, and rode them to school each day. This often involved impromptu races up Freeman’s Hill – Garry often spoke of probably the only race he ever won and that was when he whacked his horse Tony on the shoulder instead of on the backside and the horse’s pace shocked everyone, Garry most of all.

We were all taught to play cards at an early age, and when we weren’t out helping on the farm or exploring the district, we would gather round the kitchen table for endless games of cards, the noisier the better. “Chook Chook” was a good one, very noisy as each player called for their cards, and in later years Garry taught his own family this very silly game amongst others.

As we all grew up the farm became the setting for a number of courtships, and Garry, as the youngest, was there to see it all. In the words of his step-sister Elsa, trying to convey some of her memories for today, she wrote: “I have tried to think of things to say but for once my mind is blank.....Garry just seemed to be there, so quietly trod that no one knew he was close.  I know he caught Don and I in a couple of tight squeezes but he just grinned and walked away.   Once we were up at the dairy dam and Don was teaching me to shoot with air rifle at corn cobs....At first I was hopeless and missed most of the cobs, then one day managed to  break one in half and it shot up out of the water ....there was another shot and the thing landed down in two pieces. Garry was standing not far behind us showing off and we did not know he was there. There was no chance of private courtship on that farm”  (And speaking on my own behalf, the first time I ever took Jenny home for a New Year’s dance at Grandchester, we had Garry in the back seat of my little VW – very romantic!)

Elsa also remembers going to the local dances – Elsa and Thea, Clive and Garry. She remembers coming home after the dances. She says “Thea and I were in front of the old ute and you boys were in the back and we sang all the dance songs at top volume. Goodness knows what the farmers thought as we went by if they were awake. Garry's voice was like a frog being choked!”   

Garry did his primary schooling at Ashwell State School, near Rosewood, and then later became a boarder at Ipswich Grammar for his secondary education.  He chose banking as his career and spent the next 40 years with the ANZ Bank, serving in most of the major centres in Queensland, including Townsville, Charters Towers, Jandowae, Bundaberg, Moura, until his retirement in Oakey.

It was while he was working in Brisbane that Garry met Sheila Hedley, on a blind date arranged by one of Garry’s friends.  Sheila was doing Midwifery at Mater Mother’s hospital.  Sheila often joked that she only married him because he worked in a bank, and she thought he would get free samples.  They were married in Ipswich on 3rd February, 1968. I was honoured to be the best-man at their wedding, as Garry had been for me some years earlier.

Garry and Sheila had 3 children, Andrew, Peter and Helen, and later welcomed Helen’s husband Ben, and Peter’s wife Harmony, plus grand-children Damien, Joshua, Lachlan, Karli and William into their loving family.  The children describe their father as warm and loving, however firm and consistent with his discipline, and always fair.  They recall the home as always being a warm, friendly, stable environment – and very welcoming.  It never changed, even to this day.

Garry took an active interest in everything the children did – whether this was fishing, sporting activities such as soccer for the boys, and gymnastics for Helen, then Cubs and Scouts.  He wanted to teach his children everything he could, such was his enthusiasm and commitment.  And Garry didn’t just take the children – and those from other families - to these events – he took on active roles within the Clubs along with Sheila.  That was anything and everything from Team Manager, Club secretary, treasurer – if there was a position to be filled - Garry was there with Sheila.

Garry was lucky to have married a creative, artistic wife, and he was a wonderfully supportive husband attending Art galleries, functions and assisting Sheila with picture framing in support of her artistic hobbies.  Garry also became the “domestic god” when Sheila returned to shift work nursing.  He created many interesting meals for the children in Sheila’s absence.  Mushroom Mince is still a favourite of Peter’s, and Andrew fondly remembers burnt ‘bangers and mash’. 

Although Garry retired in Oakey from the Bank, he certainly didn’t retire from life.  He and Sheila travelled extensively around the world and throughout Australia.  We shared a number of trips with them, and in 2005 spent 5 months in their company travelling around Australia in our camper-vans. On their numerous camping trips they enjoyed bird-watching, bush-walking and latterly geo-caching!  You may ask what geo-caching is. Well, it’s a little like a modern day treasure hunt, using the internet and satellite navigation to find the co-ordinates of secret caches which may (or may not) contain small treasures. The trick is in finding the wretched things, and Garry took this pastime very seriously indeed – earning the nick-name “The Blood-hound”, because he would never give up on finding the cache.  He would often come out of the bush bleeding from scratches, in fact once he tripped over a barbed wire fence incurring a nasty injury.  Fortunately the Cache that day contained a First Aid Kit which was put to good use.

One of the things Garry was renowned for in the family was his interest in the WEATHER! It seems to be an interest which is passed down from father to son in the Greet family, and Garry could talk forever about what was happening with the weather. Since the introduction of the meteorological information on the internet, sitting in front of the computer and watching where the storms were going was very important. We had to smile recently while reading a letter Garry composed for the family newsletter some years ago – he was supposed to be setting out details of our joint trip to England and Singapore, but kept interrupting himself to mention how many points of rain or how much hail was currently falling in Oakey as he wrote.

In his spare time, Garry loved working in the garden growing veges and flowers – which can be quite a challenge in Oakey.   He also brewed his own beer, bottling a brew only the day before he died.

As you can probably guess from the props here today, Garry loved Golf. The memories of numerous trips to Woodford for golf weekends will be especially cherished by both Andrew and Peter.  Once again, he not only enjoyed the game itself, he also worked as a volunteer green-keeper and general handy-man at the Oakey Golf Club.

Like many of his generation Garry could turn his hand to anything, in fact became known as Mr Fix It.  Nothing new ever needed to be purchased, Garry always believed it could be, and should be, repaired, and he was the man to do it!  Whether that was general repairs around the home or at Helen’s place.  Even the grand-children knew that if it was broken – then take it to Grandad!

Garry had a strong sense of community involvement.  He was a Lions member for 40 years serving in Bundaberg, Moura and Oakey since 1978.  During this time Garry held the positions of Secretary, Treasurer, and Vice-President at varying times.  He was always a willing helper, reliable and loyal, but at the same time wanted no fuss and no acknowledgement of his work.

Jenny and I had left for a holiday in New Zealand 4 days before Garry died. On the Monday before we left we had an email from him, telling us his golf scores for the weekend, and the hole-in-one he NEARLY got, and the 1mm of rain that had fallen in Oakey. He finished up with this gem “A snapdradon has come up in our front garden - we have never had any
snapdragons since we have been here so a little bird must have dropped it in passing.”