The Afterword

Tag: family

  • The Roosters Jersey

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    Peter
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    Describe an item you were incredibly attached to as a youth.What became of it? The item I was most attached to as a boy was a rugby league jersey: the Eastern Suburbs Roosters (now the Sydney Roosters). These days, the Roosters are one of the glamour clubs. They’ve been successful for a long time, and…

  • A Life Mission

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    Peter
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    What is your mission? I have dedicated my life to helping people grow. That has taken different forms in different seasons, but the thread has been remarkably consistent. I did it as a parish minister, walking alongside people as they grew in their knowledge and love of God. I did it as a husband, taking…

  • The Car That Carried More Than Us

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    Peter
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    What is your all time favourite automobile? I’ve never been a car person. I don’t follow models or specifications, and I don’t care about engines for their own sake. Cars, to me, have always been practical: a way to get where you need to go. But my father loved cars and he developed a passion…

  • False Starts

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    Peter
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    Tell us about your first day at something — school, work, as a parent, etc. I was four. Which, in hindsight, explains a lot. There had been no preschool. No gradual introduction to groups or routines or puzzles on low tables. My entire social world consisted of Robert, who lived three doors down. Robert was…

  • From Bedrock to Bluey

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    Peter
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    What’s your favourite cartoon? Cartoons have changed a lot since I was a kid. Back then, my favourites lived in a prehistoric suburb called Bedrock. The Flintstones felt clever to me in ways I couldn’t have named at the time — the stone-age gadgets, the dinosaur appliances, the playful send-ups of adult life. But cartoons…

  • A Decision That Wasn’t Really a Decision

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    Peter
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    What’s the hardest decision you’ve ever had to make? Why? Hard decisions come in all shapes. Some are true crossroads. Others pull good commitments in opposite directions. And some don’t feel like decisions at all—they’re simply heavy because of love. Eight years ago we rehomed a border collie named Dakota. Gentle, chocolate tri-colour, quiet as…

  • Light and Shadow

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    Peter
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    When you’re a child, everything feels big. The days stretch long, the friendships feel forever, and even the smallest moment can fill the whole sky. Childhood is made of contrasts — light and shadow living side by side. I remember the joy first. Endless days with Robert, three doors up the street. We played until…

  • The Heirloom

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    Peter
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    Describe a family member My mother is ninety-one. Her memory drifts now, and her balance is unsteady. She no longer knows what day it is, or where she is. She knows that my father sleeps at home, but she can no longer remember where that home is. She lives in a nursing home now, where…

  • History in Black and White

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    Peter
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    What major historical events do you remember? The first world event I remember is the death of President Kennedy. I was a kid in infants school. The news came through our black-and-white television — one my father built himself, his engineer’s pride sitting square in the corner of the lounge room. We were among the…

  • When the World Is Asleep

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    Peter
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    What have you been working on? Sometimes the work begins when the world is asleep. Last night the phone rang well after midnight — a mother, frightened and far away, worried for her son who hadn’t been in touch since early evening. Her son is an international student staying in our residential college. She couldn’t…

  • The Boy Who Stepped In

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    Peter
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    What’s something most people don’t know about you? My first year at school was a blur of anxiety and confusion. I was only four, too young to understand what was happening. My best friend was still at home, nine months younger, and the playground felt like another planet. I hadn’t been to pre-school, so I…

  • Through Many Moves

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    Peter
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    What makes a good neighbour? I’ve moved a lot. Different streets, different locations. Each one teaches you something about people and how we live near each other. When I was a kid, our street was full of children. We were in and out of each other’s houses all the time. There were small irritations but…

  • When “Black Tie” Didn’t Mean What I Thought It Did

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    Peter
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    I feel very embarrassed when I look back on it. I was a broke uni student when the invitation arrived: a 21st birthday party in one of Sydney’s more affluent suburbs. The card read simply: Black Tie. Perfect, I thought. I didn’t own one, but I knew a mate who did. A quick borrow, and…

  • Ziggy’s Party

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    Peter
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    Yesterday we celebrated Ziggy’s 6th birthday. Ziggy, for those who don’t know, is a cavoodle who has left paw prints on the heart of our college since the day he arrived. His story is already legendary: at just 12 weeks old, his owner was encouraged to let him sleep outside. The fences were secure, but…

  • A Plan That Matches

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    Peter
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    Most emergency preparedness plans start with a checklist: torches, bottled water, spare batteries. It involves providing essentials and eliminating risk. Mine starts with two people.My mother, 91. My father, 95. Still living in the house they bought sixty years ago. They are determined to keep four things at this stage of life: Moving into higher…

  • Conversations with a Restless Library

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    Peter
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    I don’t curate.I don’t pre-select.I don’t build productivity playlists. I just hit shuffle on my entire music library and wait to see what sort of mood it’s in. Some days, it’s a model colleague — thoughtful, supportive, gently nudging me into creative flow.Other days, it behaves like a caffeinated record-store assistant with a point to…

  • Notes from a Dining Hall Dreamer

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    Peter
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    I don’t cook anymore. These days, I eat in the college dining hall—three meals a day, plenty of warm food and good company, but not a lot of variety. It works. It keeps the wheels turning. But every so often, I remember the kitchen version of myself. The one with spice-stained cookbooks and half-used jars…

  • A Piece of the Past

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    Peter
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    I was running a memoir writing course for a group of older adults, including my mother and father. As part of a writing exercise, we laid out a range of objects on a table—simple items intended to spark memories. Each participant was invited to choose one and use it as a prompt for free writing.…

  • The Company You Keep: How Your Inner Circle Shapes You

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    Peter
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    They say we become like the people we spend the most time with. If that’s true, then who we’re with is not just a reflection of who we are—it’s a blueprint of who we’re becoming. For me, that influence is both narrow and broad. First and most deeply, there’s my wife.She’s passionate—about wild places, community,…

  • Grandad’s Guide to Changing Your Name

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    Peter
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    Turns out, if I ever need to vanish—say, into a witness protection program, or just a quiet caravan park outside Dubbo—my grandfather’s got me sorted. Now, this is a man who spent most of his pay packet at the pub and left my grandmother with sixpence to feed three hungry boys for a week. Classic…