Memories of Max

This is the blog my Mum wrote for Max recently:

My first memory of Max goes back to Shenton Park.

I don't remember where, or how, Max and Denny first met, but one day he turned up in our backyard and was a welcome fixture in our Onslow Road home for all the years we lived there.

He was snowy haired and barely eight at the time. A right little "fireball".

Over the next ten years, Max all but moved into Denny's room. Sleeping Over endless nights. Playing cricket for hour after hour in the side street. Summer days spent swimming in the backyard pool. Summer evenings spent putting snags on the BBQ at Shenton Park Lake. Winter brought its own delights. Keeping the fireplace in Denny's bedroom going for days on end while they, and other boyhood friends, played Dungeons and Dragons well into the night.

The fireplace in Denny's bedroom must have had its own special magic because

one memorable winter they managed to feed into it our entire stock of wood in a roughly seven day period!

Max was so much a part of our family that my store of memories is massive.

However some memories are so sharply etched in my heart and mind they will be with me forever.

Max ordering a Hamburger, at the Jolly Friar on Onslow Road, is one such gem:-

"Hamburger please mister -

Hold the lettuce

Hold the tomato

Hold the onion

Hold the pickle"

Max's aversion to anything "green or salad like" stayed with him well into manhood.

But perhaps my most poignant memory of Max was six weeks before he died.

We had caught up for coffee in Subiaco.

We spent a lovely couple of hours together enjoying the reminiscence of times past. Talking about his life and job in Melbourne and just generally "Chewing the Fat".

I remarked later in a phone conversation with Denny, how well I thought Max looked and, even more importantly, how contented he seemed.

How could I possibly have known, that as I dropped Max off at his Mother's home, turned the car around and waved goodbye, that Max would, shortly, "exit stage left" from my life.

God Bless you Max. I pray that your soul has been freed for new adventures.

Sue Carr




There are more comments for Maxie on a previous blog entry from November 2009. Or you can click HERE to jaunt straight there.


For more photos of Max Flory or to contribute a photo please visit this flickr page