Shane

My stepdad was an interesting character, given to telling outrageous stories that only now I think may have been true. In his time he was a farmer, shepherd, metal worker and horse whisperer, plagued by type 1 diabetes from the age of about 20. He went less active as a youngster and spent most of his adult life out of the church, coming back to it only about 11yrs ago, shortly after which he travelled up from Invercargill to Hamilton for a wedding and met my mother.

Less than 2wks after their first meeting, they were engaged. The first time I met him was several months later at my sisters wedding. I could not fathom what on earth my mother saw in him. The night before their wedding he went on a sugar low and crashed his car into a ditch (the car he had just given to me with the intent that i would learn to drive in it). I looked at my siblings and wondered what my mother was thinking, was this not a sign of how their future life together would be?

Shane was a good poet, storyteller and cook. He helped teach me to drive (his method being to hold my knee and pinch me whenever I did something he didn't like) and he was very generous with his time and his belongings. He was very cheeky and we often would have arguments when our mutual insult-slinging matches became quite heated. According to mum, if he had ever had a daughter she would be just like me. I'm not sure whether to be pleased or offended by that remark.

Mum was his first and only wife. I often told him he was lucky she put up with his nonsense, when he was thinking clearly he usually agreed with me. She spent the last 2 or so years of his life as a full time caregiver, after numerous incidents including breaking his leg when he was thrown off a horse he was breaking in, being put on kidney dialysis, numerous infections, having part of his leg amputated and getting more and more grouchy with the pain.

He passed away peacefully in his sleep, and has now gone to join his parents and numerous family members on the other side. We buried him at a cemetery just out of Hamilton yesterday.