My strongest and fondest memories of my Nana Smith, my Dad’s mum, are her beautiful garden where she’d take us exploring to pick flowers, her lovely thick wavy hair and her big brown eyes, how she played cricket with us in her backyard – with a homemade cricket bat, the way she boiled water for our baths, given that her and Pop didn’t have hot water in their home, how she chatted to her daily visiting magpie, who wandered in her always open back door, the Nestle Coffee & Milk she would make us for breakfast, along with toast cooked against the open fire, after a sleep over, her made with love knitted cardigans and jumpers and her love for the Geelong Football Club.
It was my Nan, after growing up in Winchelsea near Geelong and supporting The Cats herself as a young girl, who passed on and instilled in us a love of football and of her beloved team. Even before I was born she’d knitted me a navy blue and white striped football jumper.
Each Saturday she would listen on her little transistor, until the game got close and she would turn it off and go out for a walk around the backyard. Her nerves would get the better of her. And after the games, Nan would cut snippets and posters out of her local paper about the players and their performance and send them to my sisters and I to read and stick on our bedroom walls.
When new people come into my life, it often takes them a little while to understand my fascination with football. Why is such a girly girl, obsessed with all things fashion and beauty, so passionate about a football team? You see for me, it’s so much more than the actual game of football. It’s about the connection I have to my family. A special bond I’ll always have with my Nan, my Dad, my sisters and my nieces. I savour the precious moments and the memories we now have together, of our time spent at the football. Last Saturday we all met at Southgate for breakfast, after which we caught a water taxi down the Yarra River to the MCG. We cheered together, we sang the song together and afterwards we celebrated together. It was the perfect day.
My advice is that if you can find something that connects you with your family, whether it is a love of camping, sport or food, you’ll be very fortunate indeed. You’ll have something that will bind you together forever.
When my Nan passed away, at her funeral we put a Cats scarf on her coffin and played the Geelong theme song as she was carried out of her little church in Trentham. The Cats meant the world to her. I still think of my Nan when the Cats win today. The saddest thing about Geelong winning the recent premierships is that our Nan isn’t here to experience it with us. She would have been so proud. She would have cut out the posters and stories about the players and sent them to us in the mail like she did when we were little girls.
**NB: Take lots of photos of your loved ones. When I went looking for a photo of my Nan this was all I could find. At least I know it was taken on probably one of the happiest days of her life – her only child, her son’s wedding day.
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