CHAPTER 28

Family and holidays

When we moved to Canberra, George had been at Sydney University for two years. He graduated in 1984 with a Bachelor of Economics (hon.) degree. Towards the end of his studies he lived for some time in our old house in Lindfield, which he shared with some friends. He moved to Melbourne in July 1984, when he was offered a job through the Rev. Dick Wootton at the Social Responsibility Department of the Uniting Church. We visited him there a couple of times and met a lot of his friends from the church and from a support group. He seemed very happy to live in Melbourne and liked his work.

Just after our move to Canberra in 1981, we took Mark to Hawkesbury Agricultural College at Richmond, where he studied Agriculture. He showed us around the whole complex and we were quite impressed with the facilities there. He stayed at the College for most of the time and graduated in 1985 with a Bachelor of Agriculture degree. After his graduation he rented a small farm from one of his lecturers on the banks of the Hawkesbury River, called Nunyara. We visited him at this idyllic spot several times, where he raised chickens, strawberries in a tunnel house, water melons and vegetables. Anne Mussared, his girlfriend from Hawkesbury, had moved in with him for her final year.

In January 1987 Mark and Anne were married by me in Adelaide. Both our mothers were staying with us then. They flew to Adelaide, while the rest of us, including nephew Ian Chandler, went by car there in one day. I was very pleased that Mark and Anne had asked me to marry them, but at one point in the service I nearly choked with emotions. Our first son going down the aisle with his wife! It was really a wonderful wedding. I felt honoured to be asked to conduct it, and afterwards at the reception the Mussareds didn't spare anything to make it a most memorable occasion.

Even the barbecue the following day at the Mussared's home was a great success. More relaxed than the reception, of course, and so very friendly. According to a long standing Mussared tradition, all the young people were asked to pose for a photograph under the balcony. As everyone was jostling for a position, someone from above poured a couple of buckets full of water over the group. After this, a riot started, or rather a water war. I don't think anyone got away completely dry, not even

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