There is a photo which has held pride of place in our family home as long as we can remember. It is a family photo. A smiling couple with two strange looking boys ☺️ Growing up we'd have people over and they'd look across our walls, scanning the plethora of images of our immediate and extended families at various gatherings, sharing meals, sharing laughs and sharing memories. There would be a chuckle here, a sniffle there…then they would reach this photo. And the question would come, "who are they?" Whether it was mum, dad, or one of us, a certain pride would rear its head and we'd exclaim, "that's our Aunty Elaine, Uncle Michael, and cousins Steven and Matthew… They're Ellerbrocks and they?re in Teexxxxx-as!" We would hear snippets of who they were and what they did. We learned of our uncle Michael, the good man, the decent man, the marine veteran who served his country with honour and great buddy of our father whilst in Australia. While Steven had come out to live in Sydney over 9 years ago and Matthew had been out a couple of times recently as well, it wasn?t until last year that we finally met our Aunty Elaine and Uncle Michael. From the moment we saw them, it was as we had known them our whole lives ? the cliché instant connection. The funny thing was, we felt as close to them, as comfortable with them ? having lived thousands of kilometres away (that?s 5/8 of a mile), as we had with the extended family that we had grown up with in Australia. We knew of the health issues that Uncle Michael had been through but when we met him, we were greeted with warmth and calm. There was nothing verbose about him, just a certain understated presence that we were completely at ease with. For something that had been building for the best part of 20 years, it was strangely easy. To finally engage and converse and touch the man we had grown up with on our hallway wall for as long as we can remember (though now without the beard), it was truly an amazing thing and a time that we will all cherish for the rest of our days. While he has left us much too early, we are thankful for the time we had with him. We send our love to Aunty Elaine, our cousins Steven and Matthew, and to Uncle Michael?s family, while we have not met, in sharing his loss. It is of great solace to us that our mother Grace and cousin Steven have made the trip over to the US. Here in Australia though, we will make do knowing that we can still walk down our hallway, look up to that photo and remember him with the same affection we trust all of you will. The good man, the decent man. Rest in peace Uncle Michael. All our love, your nieces and nephews, Stephannie, Alisa, Martin and Christopher
