The Eulogy
Dad was born on 27th June, 1941
Second child to Eric and Mrytle Bendschneider, who were married in 1936
He actually remembers meeting his father for, what was for him, the first time. My grandfather, Eric, was enlisted in the Engineering Corps of the Air Force in April 1944 before dad was three years old, and was coming home from his tour of duty in Darwin at the end of the war. Dad recalled standing on the porch in Victoria Rd, Coburg, half hiding behind his mother's skirt, as this tall imposing man in uniform approached the front door.
As a boy he was a keen participant in the Air Cadets, and at a young age was promoted to an Officers rank. Much of his cadet training was held down in Point Cook, and he fondly retold of a cheeky bonus flight he was privileged to take in a CAC CA-22 Winjeel trainer, which had to make an emergency spare parts delivery run down to Traralgon. This plane now sits in The Pt Cook RAAF museum. He later applied to, and was successful in gaining entry to the RAAF, but failed the medical as he was unfortunately prone to migraine headaches.
Dad's blood, though ran Navy blue, and he was delighted when asked to train with the Carlton under 19 squad, along with his cousin David Sutton. Little did he realise just how seriously it was taken at Princes Park, and the fun was taken out of it for him, so they went back to playing local footy. Dad took me to a few footy games over the years, but I especially remember the 1982 Grand Final against Richmond. Now there was this strange incident in the third quarter, where Dad ripped the binoculars out of my hands to inspect what was happening on the field, and what was draped around Bruce Doull at the time. The strap was still around my neck though!
Dad was a keen fisherman, shooter, and of course water skier, and was a very early entrant on the scene, starting as a 20 year old with his cousin David, and they were frequently seen in Yarrawonga, Rushworth and Nagambie practising their barefoot skiing. He proudly recounts how he also trained many blind people to water ski, giving them a new found sense of thrill.
Out of school, he worked for the State Bank of Victoria where he met my mother Marion Money, whom he married 25th of October 1969, and later had two children, me in May 1972 and then later Christine in May 1976.
At the bank, he achieved the role of Manager in 1984, where he was the co-coordinator of the premises department. This entailed him overseeing the Banks transformation into a "modern" bank, through the installation of those new-fangled ATM's, and later the three day branch transformations with the introduction of the pneumatic security screens. As these occurred over weekends, I often went with him to work, a different location each week where I would help out where I could, which inevitably meant hauling junk out to the skip, and cleaning up after all the workers.
Dad was actively involved coaching my basketball team throughout my high school years, leading us to a number of grand final victories. His delight in the team getting over the line probably surpassed that of some of my team mates. His involvement in this is something I will always treasure, and be grateful for, and have followed in his footsteps.
The only constant in life is change; mum and Dad split in late 1984, and a little later, at the Chums Club, Dad found a new dancing partner, a lovely curly haired lady, named Audrey. He treasured his new extended family and the relationship he had with them. But he was a big tease, highlighted by his response to Audrey when she inquired as to what those pink and grey parrots were called. He said, they were called "Audreys"; of course, she was asking about the Galahs!
Dad was great with languages and thoroughly enjoyed the overseas holidays he and Kerry Kodak, no, sorry, Audrey had, whether to England, Scotland to see the Tattoo, Europe, Ukraine or Russia, where he could show off his language skills. He loved his traditional extended stay up at Echuca over the Easter holidays, camping by the river, boat moored high up the bank, but he always let everyone else take most of the ski's behind the boat, with his preference to take either the very early or later ones in the day when the water was nice and glassy.
Eventually, on a beautiful sunny day in November 1996, he married Audrey in Knox Gardens with his mate Len playing them out on the bagpipes.
After taking a redundancy from the bank, dad switched to manual labour, working in the maintenance department at La Trobe University. Dad loved the change in lifestyle, the lack of stress, working out doors, inventing new ways of solving problems to make his job easier, and learning how to weld.
Dad loved camping, so when retirement came, the travelling really kicked in, including heading up days if not weeks early to Echuca, to get the best camp sites. Audrey is really going to miss camping in the bush, and their yearly month long trip down to Waratah Bay, making friends everywhere they go.
And everyone could probably tell me what dad's "uniform" was. Of course it composed of, a pair of shorts, thongs,….
Except for a Christmas, when it would be augmented with a cartoon Christmas themed t-shirt. And speaking of Christmas, Dad will always be remembered for his rich, decadent Egg Nog, with not too much brandy (perhaps three much, but not too much!)
I knew that Dad was getting sick, but I didn't realise just how sick he was, until around August this year on one of my many visits, after we'd finished watching a whole lot of football highlights and repeats, he confessed, those Daicos boys are damn good footy players, and I hate to say it, but Collingwood are a good team to watch….
Although Dad was not a religious man, I'd like to finish off with this prayer, that many of you would have possibly heard him sing. This "prayer" was written by Mac Davis in 1980. In fact , it's mainly sung.
Oh Lord it's hard to be humble
when you're perfect in every way.
I can't wait to look in the mirror
cause I get better looking each day.
To know me is to love me
I must be a hell of a man.
Oh Lord it's hard to be humble
but I'm doing the best that I can.
Cameron Bendschneider