The following eulogy was read by Cheyanne Girvan at the funeral of her grandmother Sal Girvan on Monday, November 7, 2016.
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“Sarah Caroline Girvan nee Summerill, but known to all as Sally, was born on April 7, 1928 to Ruby and John Summerill.
Sally attended School at Rosemeath and Bombala Public School and she would ride a horse to school or take the horse and sulky if Ian Shaw was going to school that day. At Bombala, her best friends were Lou Black and Lou Joseph.
At the age of 9, Sal became very sick with pneumonia and almost died followed a few weeks later with whooping cough which (unbeknown to her) was the beginning of her life long battle with Bronchiectasis. She wouldn’t take her medication unless she could drink it from a fine black china cup that no one was allowed to use. After hearing the story sometimes when the nurses were having trouble getting her to take her medication, they would ask if they had to get the black cup out!
After Sally left school she worked at Leonnard’s grocery store and was loaned to Miss Morgan’s in Bombala. If her father came to town in the afternoon, she would take the saddle and bridle off the horse and let him go to find his way home and she would get a ride home in the car to which they would find the horse waiting to be let in at the gate to Girrahween.
Sal became good friends with the Girvan sisters at Emslie, but really this was a bit of a scheme to get to see Joe and at the age of 19, they married. This was the start of a strong relationship that lasted right through their lives, and that we still feel now.
Three years after getting married, Robert arrived on the scene. Sally and Joe were so proud of him they thought that they were the first couple to invent babies. Three years later, David arrived. She always said this was the biggest mistake she ever made. Then along came Sally-Ann four years later. She was her pride and joy and tried her hardest to make a lady out of her. Well that didn’t quite go to her plan! When Sally-Ann turned three, Sally decided to make a dolls cot and spent countless hours making doll clothes and dressing the dolls for Christmas. Sally and Joe sat excited waiting for her response, only to have Sally-Ann look up at and ask ‘Where’s my trucks?’
In the 1950’s Sally spent a lot of time in hospital in Sydney, after one long trip, David didn’t know who she was when she came home but when he worked it out he wouldn’t let her out of his sight.
She was exceptionally proud when Robert graduated into the Ambulance service.
She liked driving in the bush with David and together, they got bogged more times than not and after hours of carting rocks and sticks to get them out they would look at each other and say “that was a good bog!”
Sal lived most of her life at Girrahween and when the family shifted, it was only 1 mile down the road but she always called Girrahween up home. In the last few months of her life Girrahween was her safe place and would ask to go there when in pain.
In 1969 the whole family’s lives were thrown upside down when Joe had a stroke (caused by a work place accident) and was sent to Canberra. Sally went with him and left the 3 kids at home. They were looked after by their grandmother and the Badewitz family but there was never a dull moment. Life was very hard when Joe eventually came home and 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.
Sally liked Horses and involved her life around them never missing a race meeting or a trip in a car. Many of my (Cheyanne) first memories are with Gran and the race horses. Nine days before her passing, she asked the family to bring a horse in to the hospital garden. And when you asked her if she wanted to go for a ride, she replied “Of course I do, I’d be up that bloody hill in a cloud of dust!”
As a lot of you know, Sally was very good cook, whether she admitted it or not. On one particular occasion, David found an old brumby stallion in the bush one day and brought him home for dog meat.The horse was cut up and put in shopping bags and placed in the freezer with the house meat. Now you could see where this could go wrong can’t you…
So Sally was having visitors the next day and asked Andrew to get a roast out for her to cook. The next morning David went over to get them out of bed but Sal was up and cooking the roast David realised that she was cooking a slab of the old stallion and quickly left the scene. That night, he asked Sal how the meat was and was told it was so good that one of the guests went back for seconds.
Sally was very involved within in the community and helped on a lot of committees School Bus Service for Rosemeath, Pony Club, Show Society, Campdraft, Polocrosse, Tennis, Ladies Auxiliary, Bombala High school. Sally and David were the instigators for the Bombala Community fund. You name it, she probably did it.
One thing that she dedicated a lot of time to within the community was the Bombala Rural Fire Service. She would organise tanker teams to attend fires and would help other brigades find replacements if they were running short. If someone said they couldn’t go to a fire she told them one day you might need help on your own property and would hang up.They would ring back later and put their name down for the next shift. In 2009 Sally was presented with life membership of the Bombala Rural Fire Serviceand a 56 year service award medal.
After Joe’s passing, Sally’s health went downhill and Sally-Ann moved in with her to look after her and Robert would look after her the days when Sally-Ann would go work. David would go over every morning and torment her to get her blood boiling for the day and would help out at nights.
Sally’s health was fading and while she was in hospital trying to sort pain medications out, it was decided as a room was available at the Bombala Hospital for her to remain where she could get better pain management. She settled in and remained until her passing on Wednesday November 2. Sally-Ann and Robert continued to support her and made sure one was there for meal times to assist when needed. Sal was fortunate to have made and reacquainted with a lot of friends at the hospital and amused the nurses and staff with some of her sayings that everyone got a laugh from.
Sally was always very fond and proud of all her grand kids. She would go crook at Aaron and Cheyanne for driving on the road to go and see her but would ring up to see where they were in case they were sick or if something had happened. She loved it when the grandkids would take her down the back paddock in the buggy stirring the dust up and telling us that we were all bloody mad but that didn’t stop her from getting in the next time.
Mark Laurence, the lovely man who has helped us put the funeral together, well he was lurking around at the hospital one day, perhaps looking for business and spotted Sally sitting in the lounge room. He went in to say g’day only to be greeted by “You’re not getting me yet you bugger!”
Sal was a special person to a lot of people as we see today with so many travelling near and far. From her local family and friends to those coming from New Zealand, Benambra, Coffs Harbour, Sawtell, the Gold coast and goodness knows where else.
Sally was the last of her siblings to pass, being predeceased by brothers Ken and Bruce Summerill and sister Hazel Rixon.
Sally is survived by her children Robert, David & Sally-Ann. Her 5 grand kids Ilise, Mark, Andrew, Aaron and Cheyanne and one great grandchild, Takara.
We are all lucky to have such a lovely and caring woman in our lives. There will be no one like her again and we will miss her deeply. Rest in Peace Gran.”