Lifelong Bombala resident Sarah Caroline Girvan was farewelled by family and friends with a moving service at St Matthias Church on Monday, November 7.
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Sarah, known to all as Sally, was born on April 7, 1928, to Ruby and John Summerill. She attended school at Rosemeath and Bombala Public School.
At the age of nine, Sally contracted pneumonia followed shortly after with whooping cough which led to her lifelong battle with bronchiectasis.
After Sally left school she worked at Leonnard’s grocery store and during that time she became good friends with the Girvan sisters at Emslie. It was said that it was all part of a scheme to get to see Joe Girvan and at the age of 19 the couple married.
Three years after getting married, Sally gave birth to Robert. It was said that Sally and Joe were so proud of him they thought they were the first couple to invent babies.
Robert was followed by David three years later. Four years after that their daughter Sally-Ann was born.
During the 1950s Sally spent a lot of time in hospital in Sydney and after one particularly long stay her son David didn’t recognise her, “but when he worked it out he wouldn’t let her out of his sight”.
Sally was extremely proud when her son Robert graduated into the Ambulance service.
Sally lived most of her life at Girrahween and when the family shifted, it was only one mile down the road but Sally always called Girrahween “up home”.
In the last few months of Sally’s life Girrahween was her safe place and she would ask to go there when in pain.
In 1969 the family’s lives were thrown upside down when Joe had a stroke caused by a work place accident. Joe was sent to Canberra and Sally went with him, leaving the three children at home to be looked after by their grandparents and the Badewitz family.
Life was hard when Joe eventually came home but the whole family worked together to look after him.
Sally never left his side or stopped looking after him until he passed away in 2014.
Throughout Sally’s life she contributed to the community and was involved with the Bombala Rural Fire Service and she worked on a lot of committees including the school bus service, Pony Club, Campdraft, Show Society, Polocrosse, tennis, ladies auxiliary and Bombala High School.
She was also along with her son David the instigator of the Bombala Community Fund.
After Joe’s passing, Sally’s health went downhill and she spent a lot of time in hospital before passing away on Wednesday, November 2.
Sally is survived by her children Robert, David and Sally-Ann, five grandchildren Ilise, Mark, Andrew, Aaron and Cheyanne and one great grandchild, Takara.
Sally’s family would like to thank everyone for their expressions of sympathy and their condolences. The family’s heartfelt thanks is also extended to all the people who brought food and helped in any way.
