“Arriving at the pearly gates, out of breath saying” whew, what a ride”
Life story
Brenda moved to Merimbula in 1979 with husband Ed, owning Kingfisher Motel for two years before building units in town. Owned and ran Monty’s restaurant for 6 years with husband Ed. In 1989, built and helped run Merimbula’s Top Fun with partners for over 30 years. During this time, Brenda was on various committees around town, liaising with council for beautification around Merimbula. She was on the towards 2000 committee for a few years leading up to 2000.
After 2000, she was one of the inaugural members of Merimbula Beautification Committee, of which she was president for nearly 20 years. Some of their legacy were various sculptures around town and Fishpen, fitness trail around Merimbula lake, landscaping and plantings on Hylands corner and numerous other projects. To help with funding, her committee ran various functions, including the annual Ball, later named Breakfast at Tiffanies. All this despite being diagnosed with MS, Brenda carried on until her MS prevented her from being actively involved. Over the years her committee received various awards and in 2014, Brenda received a BVSC Australia Day award for work for the community.
Brenda loved to travel, and a lot of the photos here are from various parts of the world, travelling up to 2017. In the photos, she is seen raising a glass, that was Brenda, enjoying live to the fullest.
Diagnosed with cancer and a hard fought battle with that, Brenda passed away at home, overlooking this chair and her beloved Merimbula.
We miss your cheery greeting each morning
As your seat on the jetty sits patiently warming
In the sun, in the rain, In the wind, in the dawning
Your seat sits patiently warming
If the Jetty could speak tall tales it would tell
Of birthdays, and Breakfasts and Weddings and Bells
Thawing out In the sun after having our swim
To the Alma, Eureka, let the tide take us in
The friendship and fun can never be lost
Of time well spent, over coffee and toast
We’ve listened to gossip, we’ve listened to tales
We’ve listened and listened when the talking stick failed
As the tide ebbs and flows, and we see you emerge
From the water you come , and your voice can be heard
“It’s bloody beautiful “ you say with your cheeky grin
“So come on you lot it’s time to get in”
We miss your cheery greeting each morning
As your seat on the Jetty sits patiently warming
In the sun, in the rain, in the wind, in the dawning
Your seat sits patiently warming
I’ve been a relatively newish friend of Brenda and Ed’s for some 30 years but in that time we have had our good share of side splitting laughter and fun.
Bren was the life of the party and people were drawn like magnets to her, with her humour, her smile, and her attitude to life.
She was a travel encyclopaedia, if you were thinking of going overseas she always had a travel story to tell and would advise you on the most interesting places to go and the best place to eat.
We shared a love of the water, kayaking and swimming. These pursuits became Brens daily routine. The blokes On the jetty Phil, Geoff, And Malcolm would help get Bren in and out of the kayak and Billy boy would watch to make sure she was safe.
Her faithful dogs baz and later on Peggy would sit on the jetty looking out waiting for her to return. We would then swim out to the boats, hang off them at either the bow or stern and have a good bitch session before swimming back to the jetty.
If we were swimming inside of Bren closer to the sand bar She would say “great girls if a shark comes in it will get the gimp first” so you girls are safe.
One day in particular was quite a memorable swim we had had a few margaritas as you do at 10am in the morning we were celebrating someone’s birthday so we decided in our wisdom to swim out to the boats, we hung off one of them and Chris said we should get up on the transom, so between Chris and I we pulled and pushed Brens arse up, I pushed from the water and Chris hauled her up, she thought if they can do it so can I, that was Bren all over. Determined.
A few years ago we decided to swim in all the rock pools between here and Sydney, some were a bit trickier for Bren to navigate getting into but once again she proved us wrong swimming in all 14.
Sometimes she would emerge from the water asking us if we had seen the seahorses or starfish or other sea creatures.
Bren used to say people can’t feel your pain so why complain. So true.
Bren hated using her walking stick and also her little motor cart. She didn’t want people to see her down town but after a few years we managed to talk her into it and she would race ahead, in and out of shops, yelling back “come on keep up Heath”
I was on the committee of the Merimbula special events committee with Bren when she was president and she was the driving force of that committee getting things done around town that you see today including the playground at Spencer Park the fitness trail the pelican sculptures around Merimbula Lake, just to name a few. She was a force to be reckoned with cajoling council into submission in many ways
Bren was truly an amazing and inspiring woman. And I’m so glad I had the privilege to have known her
