Lisa’s funeral this morning was lovely. I was right: she was about my age – 6 weeks younger, in fact. We still don’t know how she died. My only new information is that she died in her sleep, she looked peaceful and she seemed to have fallen asleep reading a book.
It was strange to see all the old faces from The Age. Many are still in similar roles, others have moved around or up: e)mag’s old photographer, Robert Banks is now Photo Editor, Features, one of the designers has moved across to Fairfax Books. My mentor Gaye Murray was there, of course, which I only realised was likely when we got there. We sat with her. e)mag’s designer, Anita Belia, was there, but barely spoke two words to me. Angus Holland, who is editor of The (Melbourne) Magazine, and therefore Lisa’s most recent boss, spoke beautifully on behalf of all the colleagues, telling some great stories about bizarre shoots Lisa had organised in the past. Angus used to sit at the desk next to mine and it was good to see him, however awful the circumstances.
I got bad news: our old production manager, Steve Berry, is apparently very ill with cancer. And I gave out my good news, which I think people were grateful for, new life, life moving forward. I introduced everyone to Doug, and even though he doesn’t want to be a press photographer, and it’s bad taste to network at funerals, I think that magazine photography is different – he likes commercial photography after all, and they use enough of it! – so hopefully if he now goes up to Rob Banks at some point or asks
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to introduce him to someone, he can say he met them at Lisa’s funeral and set up a time to show his portfolio.
I still find the whole situation bizarre. I understand that aneurysms and strokes and heart failure can strike at any time and that this kind of occurrence is only going to become more common as we get older. Richard Rannard had a stroke at 33, I think it was, and was lucky to survive and of course, we lost
from one last year. I don’t believe in an interventionist God, to quote Nick Cave, but you can’t help but think there but for the grace…