Debra Rae Gill (Nee Dunn)

After a few years at the Colac High School, and helping her mother waitressing out at the Golden Fleece after school, she decided to leave at the end of Year 10 (she was 15) to work full time at Myers in Colac, in the food section, deli and cakes. Soon after, at the age of 16, she met Terry, whom she later married in 1975. Deb then worked at Morrows where Paintright is now until she became pregnant with their first child, Narelle. Narelle was born in September 1977 and six months later Deb went to work at the Commercial Hotel as Terry had known someone there. Brett then joined the family in July 1979. They bought their first home in Moore Street the next year. Their family holidays were spent in Lorne and Debra had recalled one year having to return early as Brett had got water in his ears. She would often take Narelle and Brett around Victoria, with them participating in rock n’ roll functions and performing at the Colac Kana. With Deb wearing her rock n roll skirt and Brett holding her hand, they would rock n roll the night away. In the year of 1995, Ricky was warmly welcomed into the family. After a few years of dating, Ricky asked to marry their only daughter. In 2001, Narelle and Ricky were married at the Botanic Gardens in Colac. They found out they were expecting their first child in 2003, the first grandchild for both sides of the family. When Narelle & Ricky were in the Royal Women’s Hospital in Melbourne, Debra and Ricky’s Mum Liz, were an amazing support, staying in accommodation across the road to be close by when baby Charlotte was born still at 24 weeks in November of that year.

Deb’s grandson’s, Tanner and Miller, arrived in 2005 and 2007 and she spoilt them rotten. When they were young boys, Ma was always there for support. Often picking them up from school when Narelle & Ricky were busy at work. She was always there to watch them in their sporting activities, Tanner with his football and cricket, and Miller with his footy, cricket, basketball and racing.

At her Moore Street home, she had tried over the years to plant the odd tree. She was definitely no green thumb, with no flowers on her coffin to represent that! There were no plants or trees in the backyard either because Narelle and Brett would use it as a driving track. Brett would often bring his friends over to teach them how to drive in Deb’s burgundy Holden Gemini. All of the neighbourhood kids would be out the back doing laps around the yard. Brett found a love for motorbikes, one day bringing one home. Deb wanted to try it out, so she hopped on, accelerated and rode straight up the fence, falling off in spectacular style. When Brett was between the ages of 12 and 17, he would wake up early, grab his bike and the family dog, Suzie and ride down to the lake. He would catch a few redfin and then ride back home around 8:20am. He would fill the bath with water, dump the fish in and get ready to go to school. Deb would say to Brett “the fish had to be cleaned straight after school or no more fishing.” Brett always made sure they were cleaned to ensure he could do it all over again.

Tea at Debs with the whole family, including Nan, were frequent occurrences. Brett followed in her footsteps, acquiring the cooking skill, Narelle not so much. In recent times he would cook either a roast lamb or beef and bring it down from Geelong where Narelle would add her cooked roast veggies to Deb’s gravy, making it a family effort. Narelle and Ricky blame her for giving Tanner his sweet tooth and fussiness with food. Deb would often cook Tanner a separate meal if he didn’t want what everyone else was having.

Debra spent 28 years split shift working at the Commercial Hotel, first off waitressing and then moved on to cooking, and then 13 years cooking at the Barongarook Gardens Aged Care facility, where she loved the residents and her work colleagues immensely. Cooking wasn’t her passion, but she did it well; a skill that was passed down from her mother Audrey. Deb prided herself on cooking homemade meals for the residents at Barongarook Gardens. Narelle and Brett remember the amazing Chinese dishes she would cook them and serve, better than food from the Chinese shop, and her lasagne and spaghetti bolognaise were legendary. When Ricky worked at Bulla on night shift, they would do takeaways on a Friday night. Narelle thought of the idea of calling up her Mum and asking if she could do her famous parmas as a takeway. So, it then became Narelle’s job to take the orders & money and then pick up them up from the pub and deliver them to Ricky’s work mates. It made him very popular so I’m told. People still to this day, would see Mum or Narelle up the street and say “I still remember your delicious chicken parmas Deb, nothing beats them!”

The only trouble with Deb being a cook was that she could be quite critical of other people’s cooking when out for a meal and often embarrassed family and friends when dissatisfied with what she ended up with. Narelle was surprised when she recently commented that the Colac Hospital food was actually quite nice according to Deb. Her previous stay in Geelong hospital she didn’t eat anything. Brett would take her up a burger & hot chocolate from Maccas just so she would have something she would eat.

Deb would often call in to her mum, Audrey’s on the way home from work. They would share a cuppa and some afternoon tea and talk about their day. Deb was Audrey’s rock and they were both a terrific support to one another. If you knew Deb, you knew that she was particular about how she had her cup of tea. Only a certain few people that could master that skill. Deb was obsessed with the MotoGP bikes and when she worked at the Commercial would stay up until all hours watching it live. Then when she worked earlies at Barongarook Gardens she would record it and watch it at a more suitable hour. She was also a TV nut and would record anything that took her fancy. She got a copy of the Sunday Herald Sun to get the TV guide for the week. NCIS, Criminal Minds and Midsummer Murders being a few of her favourites. Although Deb loved her shows, she also loved movies, in particular, Bohemian Rhapsody. Narelle has lost count on the number of times she had watched it.

She loved playing bingo and the pokies and trips away to Echuca/Moama with her sisters. She got the travel bug after her river cruise in 2019 from Amsterdam to Budapest with Kim. They had another river cruise from Budapest to Bucharest to finish off their European trip which had to be cancelled following Deb’s diagnosis with Stage 4 Lung Cancer in January 2020.

Deb was the number one fan of Throckmorton Motorsport and had accompanied Narelle, Ricky and the boys on many trips around Australia watching them compete in National & State Street Stock Titles. They travelled together around Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia, Queensland with Deb even flying to Western Australia to meet up with Narelle, Ricky & the boys who had road tripped it over there to watch Ricky race. Deb had written down recently of a memory of the thrill (Narelle remembers it as terrifying) of going down the hill at Toowoomba with the trailer and racing car on behind and not knowing if the brakes would work!

Her love for Street Stocks was evident even after Ricky sold his car when Miller wanted to start racing. She knew every driver and would always follow results on Facebook. In particular, she followed closely the results of Morris “Oggie” Ahearn, Dean Jenkins and Troy Hose, Ricky’s close mates. She also loved watching Miller develop through quarter midgets and then into Junior Sedans and was so proud of his achievements. Ricky would race in the Brendan Hannabury Street Stock Memorial Race at Darlington Speedway near Mortlake. This event occurred last Sunday and has been running for the past 10 years, in which Ricky hasn’t missed a race. Whether it has been driving his own car, or being offered a drive by someone else. The family believe that Deb made the stars align by having Ricky and Miller race on the same day at the same track in Darlington on Sunday, a track she loved. Ricky and Miller both won their first heats, with Ricky taking third in the final. Miller won the final race and proudly dedicated his win to his Ma in his presentation speech. She was so committed, that it was only 12 months ago that Ricky recalls her driving herself to Darlington to watch it as Narelle & the two boys were unable to attend. She attended and then left as soon as Ricky’s final finished as she needed to get home before it got dark.

For the last two and a half years, Debra put up a courageous fight with Narelle taking it upon herself to care for her Mum. A role that she says she was privileged and honored to be able to do for her. A huge thanks needs to go to Deb’s GP, Mira Pojani from The Otway Medical Clinic, the Andrew Love Cancer Centre, the Colac Otway Shire Home Care team, the staff from Colac Area Health in particular, Ali, Catherine & team from Palliative Care, Charlotte & the team from the Frank Minchinton Cancer Centre, Urgent Care and the Acute Ward and everyone at Anam Cara House. Special mention needs to also be made to those family and friends that made Mum’s final months memorable.