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We can learn a lot when it is just too late about someone. In many cases we knew people from work, as friends or as family. We don't always know all the person. It's with great appreciation that Bill O'Shea has to us his words and opened up to some a new understanding of how much more there is to people than we may have known. Thank you Bill for passing this to us.
It is with great sadness and shock that I stand here to pay tribute to David and Marlene.
I last saw David and Marlene in October when Anne and I took them a small gift to thank them for all they had done for us during our time at Marysville.
How could we have known that just 4 months later we would be here paying tribute to their memory and mourning their loss.
I will never forget opening the Herald Sun on line on Tuesday 10 February and seeing their photographs as among those missing in the fires - the same photographs from their website with which I was so familiar– now being used to deliver this dreadful news.
What a tragedy, what a loss, how shocking, how unfair, why them?
David devoted himself to Marysville. He knew everyone and had great ideas on how the town’s tourist industry could be strengthened.
Marlene, ever patient, went along with it but always seemed more down to earth and practical: They were a great team: David had the drive and the big ideas while Marlene made sure the business ran efficiently.
Like David and Marlene, we had fallen in love with Marysville after several visits, including to Marylands, that grand old guesthouse that now lies in ruins.
Walking through a deserted Marysville at 7pm on any night was my idea of heaven: no traffic, the squawking of beautiful red and green parrots from the forest, a main street that was both pretty and a bit daggy and beautiful trees in every direction.
And, right at the centre of it all, at the main cross road in town, sat Marysville Country Real Estate, the domain of David and Marlene and their loyal and capable staff Karen Morrison and Maree Taylor.
Some people thought that David and Marlene came to Marysville for a semi-retirement lifestyle.
Yes it was as David often called it, “a tree change” but winding down never seemed to be on his agenda.
The business was open 7 days per week.
And with David’s passion for the internet, he was always available on-line at any hour.
How many married couples run a semi-retirement business working those hours!
They both seemed to always have time for people and were willing to go the extra mile.
I remember we were away one summer and our house needed a new barbeque. Marlene volunteered David to buy one for us while he was in Melbourne visiting his then 84 year old mother - who Marlene was quick to describe as “sharp as a tack”!
And if Marlene told David to do something, he did it – we got our barbeque!
I also had a close involvement with David and Marlene through the Marysville and District Chamber of Commerce. David was one of the prime movers in starting the Chamber in 2007.
Its aim was to promote Marysville and the immediate district centred on the Triangle of Marysville, Narbethong and Buxton.
After the first year, the pressure of work saw a number of Committee members withdraw.
And who stepped up to the plate – not one Sebald but both: David as President and Marlene as Treasurer.
I’m not sure Marlene was too happy at being ‘volunteered’ as Treasurer – I well remember the look of shock on her face when David suggested her as a candidate at the AGM - and that look darkened when no-one else was nominated.
It might well have been a quiet trip home in the car after that meeting!
David would go on holiday to a small NSW tourist town and bring back a DVD produced by the local tourist office to show us what could be done at Marysville.
Here is an extract from David’s first email to Chamber members after taking over as President in May last year:
“All of us wish for sustainable prosperity for Marysville (Triangle) and our businesses…. networking between members, fostering local business culture, lobbying with the Authorities and the Utilities, issues of all kinds affecting business ie infrastructure, transportation, planning issues,… promoting business and in particular day tourism (the eating and shopping experience) to Marysville and district… share knowledge and encourage training for staff… there are so many things to tackle – streetscape, Xmas and Xmas in July… as individuals there is little chance of effecting satisfactory change – hence we need to have unity and purpose. The following is a message from an overseas Chamber: ‘Nobody messes with the little guys when the little guys stand together – success starts here!’”
If there’s one good thing that has come from these fires it’s the love Victorians and indeed Australians feel for Marysville.
The Premier, Opposition Leader, Chief Commissioner - indeed the Prime Minister have all mourned the destruction of a place so many could recall from their childhood.
We cannot bear to think of it as gone.
And we cannot bear to think that David and Marlene have gone as well.
Whilst we can re-build Marysville, how do we replace people with the character and generosity of David and Marlene?
Even after it is rebuilt, Marysville will never be the same - because David and Marlene will not be a part of it.
We will just have to remember them and maintain the passion they showed for community spirit and their generosity.
My lasting memory of David and Marlene and what I have learned from knowing them is living life to the full and giving your time for your community.
We honour them here today and we mourn with their families – they were a special couple and we will all miss them terribly.
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