Mark Keith Richards

Sport has played a large role in dads life. Throughout his childhood, he played footy and cricket but basketball was his passion. Nothing would fire him up more than playing against his brothers in their driveway at home… which then continued down into the next generation, shooting hoops with me in our backyard, or coaching me from the sidelines on court. He had a very good voice for coaching… as in loud. Dad clearly knew his stuff, as he guided our team to many championships.

Everyone in this room will know dad as an electrician. Many of you may have had him over to your place to fix or replace something, however before all that dad had actually been accepted into University for Accounting. He was a pretty smart guy, who knew?! In 1986 he deferred from Uni and instead headed to Melbourne to start his electrical apprenticeship with his Uncle Gary. Upon completing his apprenticeship in 1989 Dad moved to Braeside electrical, he was there for 8 years before starting his own business at the age of 31.

Mum and Dad met when they moved in as housemates in a share-house in Clayton with friends from Leongatha. Although mum wasn’t single at the time, dad managed to work his charm and the rest is history.

They moved to Glenhuntly for a short while before getting married in 1993, then relocated to their current home in Endeavour Hills in 1994 and Naomi was born shortly after. Dad was a bit of a perfectionist, so as cute as Naomi may have been, they then went on to tweak the recipe to create something even cuter 18 months later (me).

Some years later, despite having two adorable children at home, dad felt the need to find more reasons to get out of the house on the weekends. So, without Mums knowledge [it’s always easier to seek forgiveness rather than permission], he went out and bought 1 of his greatest pride and joys, his Porsche 911. He loved this car and you would regularly see mum and dad cruising around in it visiting family and friends on weekends whenever they weren’t busy taking Shaun or myself to netball, callisthenics, basketball or football, which, looking back now, didn’t give them many free weekends.

Speaking of football, dad had many roles, including Vice-President, where I played Junior footy at Mossgiel Park Hawks in Endeavour Hills. He earned a Life Membership for his many and varied contributions to the club. If he wasn’t doing committee duties, you could often find him goal umpiring, being the time keeper, umpire escort, general handyman, behind the bar serving drinks, or even in front of the bar consuming drinks with folks who've gone on to become lifelong friends.

Around the time he sneakily bought the Porsche, he also bought his Honda VFR 800 motorbike, his 2nd pride and joy. Dad would have to talk mum into jumping on behind him, although after the first time, mum was probably just as excited to get on it as he was. They would head off on weekend motorbike trips away with some of their closest friends and dad was even generous enough to ride his “motorbike” while the Little Jem Crew rode their “push bikes”, from Sydney to Newry for charity, as a crew member & escort.

You could never let dad go shopping. If you asked him to go to buy some groceries, he’d always come back with some kind of tool or gadget from the middle section in Aldi. For those of you who have been in dads garage, you can tell he’s one of “those” guys who has just about everything for anything, and everything meticulously in its place. He did always say that if he wasn’t an electrician, he would’ve been a builder. Being really good with his hands, he could figure out and create just about anything he wanted to.

A classic example of this was his recent Covid project…an old dump of a house Mum and Dad bought to renovate. Dad stepped into practically every trade. He had all the gear and with the guidance of his many tradie mates, and his 2IC Mum, they between them renovated from top to bottom and finished up with a beautiful, immaculate little home.

When he wasn’t working his butt off to support mum, Naomi and myself, he enjoyed watching recordings of all of his favourite TV dramas. I don’t think he missed an episode of Home and Away in the last 30 years. It always had to be a recording though, he couldn’t stand ads! He had to have control of the remote but if you were unfortunate enough to end up with it, you had to be on high alert for the next ad break. More than a glimpse of the first ad was unacceptable. Mum was usually the slowest so you would often hear “honeyyy, quicklyyyy”, but only once because mum would give the remote back to him – she couldn’t handle the pressure.

Most of you will also remember dad being quite loud, whether that be on the phone, listening to music, or sitting right next to you. We can’t be sure whether it was industrial deafness, or from blasting his music, movies and TV at high volume, or whether he wasn’t deaf at all, he just liked yelling. His vocal cords were renowned for catch phrases like “wicked”, “okey dokey, have fun” and my personal favourite, “Shaunnnnnn” – luckily for me you can't yell ‘sweetie’.

He wasn’t much of a chef but he was pretty handy at a BBQ and could definitely cook a damn good bacon and scramble eggs, it was the regular aroma you’d smell on a Saturday morning. You’d know it was cooked when you could hear music from Rage blasting at high volume till the windows shook to launch us all out of bed.

Dads favourite place to be was at the farm. As a family we’ve spent every holiday and long weekend camping at ‘the bus’ along the river at the back of Granny’s farm. Over the past 20 years, many of our family, friends and acquaintances were invited to join us at ‘Tinamba resort’. Dad loved nothing more than to follow us kids, along with the Edmonds and Dunmalls, around the farm, fixing all of the fences, cars, kayaks and motorbikes we broke. Even if he did swear and complain about it, he could never sit still so we kept him busy. Despite growing up on Dairy farms, you didn't often find dad in the milking shed. He would be up early enough, but usually because he hadn’t yet been to bed. Phil, dad and whoever they could keep up with them would often stay up drinking and spinning yarns around the fire until the sun rose. In more recent years, Dad and Darren always had a new project in the works to improve our camping spot. If dad had had a few more years, I think ‘the bus’ really could have achieved ‘resort’ standard.

Some of you may not have heard much about dads cancer journey. He was diagnosed about 18 months ago, and while it was a shock, everything was pretty business-as-usual with dad, he just had to fit in an occasional visit to hospital for chemo treatment or scans. This worked really well to begin with and dad was cleared of cancer (12?) months later in ….. 2022. 3 months later however, when he went to be reviewed they found that it was back and had spread. Treatment ensued again and we were all still hopeful that everything would work as well as last time. That was not the case though and the treatment was not as effective the second time round. While this was disappointing, everything was still business as usual with dad and we all had a wonderful christmas and new year together at the farm. Upon returning home, on January 8th, dad went to hospital with a fever and unfortunately, things declined rapidly from there. He kept his strength and courage until the end. It was only a week before he died that we found out he was not going to win this fight. I'm so glad that Mum, Nay, Josh, Sarah and I were able to be there for him as he passed. While it hurt so much for us, we all hope it was a comfort to Dad to know how loved he was, and always will be.

Naomi: Dad, I want you to know that I am so proud to call you my dad. I have never felt closer to you than in the last few years since moving out and starting my own family. While distance may mean that other families drift apart, for us it did the opposite. You were always there, whether that be for a social drop-in, to help us with a project or to look after Max for us. Raising my own children put into perspective how much you really did do for us and how present and dedicated you were as a father. While you may have put on a tough exterior, everyone knew you had a heart of gold and could come to you with anything, no matter how big or small. Nothing made me happier than seeing the pure joy on Max’s face when he saw his Grandad and nothing breaks my heart more than when he asks for you now. I wish my little girl got to meet you; I wish we got to do our father-daughter dance and I wish we had more time. My promise to you is that we will never forget the good times or your strength and skill and generosity. We will pass on all you have taught us, to your grandkids. And we will look after mum. I love you dad.

Shaun: Hey dad, I hope you are now at peace wherever you are. Our relationship definitely had its ups and downs, but as I got older, I began to understand and appreciate everything you did for me to become the person I am today.

Working hard to provide Naomi and I with a better life than you had, your determination and drive to succeed have been a guiding light for me, and I hope to follow in your footsteps. I have such fond memories of the time you spent teaching me to ride motorbikes and drive cars.

Though most of us here know you don’t have the most patience in the world, somehow, we managed to not kill each other while working together. You were the best electrician I have ever known, and I feel proud to have learned from you. Your skills and knowledge have been a constant source of inspiration for me.

And let’s not forget your “tips” (which were more like lectures) on how to be better at sports. You were at almost every single game of basketball and football I’ve ever played. I could count on one hand the amount of games you missed. I will always be grateful for your support. I will miss your laughter and your smile, but I know that your spirit and the lessons you taught me will live on forever. Love you dad.