Charisma deceives,
Tricking into assumptions of simplicity of presentation.
Force of presence obliterates multilayered complexities.
peeling your history - a pass-the-parcel,
with every layer delivering an unexpected prize.
Vignettes surfacing on holidays
or around trivia tables.
My constant request...
“Darling, how do I do this?”
You had a tool for everything,
knowing its name and history of development.
Limits of formal education,
never holding back a well formed opinion,
based on breadth of reading and discourse.
You held your own with politicians and religious leaders,
trade unionists, sport stars, media personalities,
professors, homeless, and children....
Elements of Peter Pan and Pied Piper,
a magnet!
People buzzed around you,
like bees seeking the nectar of vitality
for you were unstinting in sharing life.
I sit here surprised that all life didn’t just stop that day,
But here we are, noting your absence.
True - the sun is red these days
and we are beginning to forget
what a blue sky looks like.
(C) A A Koh-Butler, 2019
Terry Butler work history...
(Let me know if I have missed something)
First job as a banker.
Journo in Bourke at The Western Herald.
Roustabout, cotton-farmhand at Jack Buster’s Darling Farms
Called up for National Servie, trained as an officer at Scheyville,
Graduated as a 2nd Lieutenant
Travelled the coastline as a surfie
Triple certificate nurse - general, psych and midwife,
Working at royal north shore, Gladesville and back to north shore
Retail included menswear and managing a hardware store
Worked as a builder’s labourer for his brother-in-law, Rod,
before going into business with Russell as a trade painter.
Together they worked up special finishes.
An acquired allergy to paint led to taxi driving and hire cars.
Then, studies at UNSW in Theatre and Film,
completing three years of a five-year BA/BEd
And volunteer teaching drama at Chatswood High school.
Beginning to write...
Church Administrator at Chatswood-Willoughby Uniting Church
(Secretary to Ian Robinson, Fee Morrison, Dong Gyu Lee)
A cardiac arrest saw retraining at NatureCare College with Diplomas in Remedial Therapies and Remedial Massage.
Massage Therapist at Beverley Hills Chiropractic (with Bruce Stevenson and Michelle Henderson)
Novelist
Amelia, these evocations are beautiful and give rich and detailed insight into your journey with Terry, especially its final stages, and how you were affected. And what a work history, representing the whole expansive range of his interests. I think it was Allan Robinson, not Ian, at the Chatswood-Willoughby Uniting Church, a family I came to know and admire. Travel well.
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