Leading from the front issuu

”His
eyes burn to a
distant point where
all roads converge”.
Tone Tuwhare —
Time and the
Child
CARPET KING OF
HAWKE’S BAY
There were some corny ads for Pat’s business that called
him the Carpet King of Hawke’s Bay. So of course, as a
young girl with a passion for fairy tales and a Princess
head board above my bed, I asked him one day if he was
indeed the carpet king and did that make me a princess?
To which he replied, "Of course you're a princess!” Unfortunately
other people took more convincing and consequently
when Pat eventually abdicated as carpet king
I lost my ‘tiara’ which was a good thing all round, really.
GOODBYE NORMAN KIRK
The day Norman Kirk died in 1974 I was at school in
Masterton and a few days later Pat drove in through
the school gates and impressively (I thought), whisked
me away to Big Norm’s funeral in Wellington. It was an
unforgettable experience. We’ve enjoyed many such adventures
and significant, magical moments as Pat has
taken us along with him on his myriad of pilgrimages.
A MONTH IN INDONESIA
As a 15-year-old, travelling the length of Indonesia and
visiting Bali too with the family, we experienced true poverty
on the one hand and cultures that express joy in the
simplest moments, on the other. This trip offered life-long,
rich learnings and left us with a passion for travel as well.
A SOCIALIST BUSINESSMAN?
Even though Pat owned a business for most of his life,
the capitalist spirit just isn’t in his DNA. A revealing case
in point: during Auckland’s heady real estate market
around 1992 I sold my house in Titirangi and “did quite
well”. Pat was amazed and kind of disappointed when I
told him how much I had pocketed from the sale. “But
you don’t have to accept all that, do you?” I realised then
Pat’s spiritual advice was way more valuable than his financial,
and from there on in I deferred to my soon-to-be
husband Richard on all matters financial.
PARTY PARTY PARTY PARTY!
Around March each year, six months before Pat’s birthday
in September there’s a conversation in our family
that goes something like this: Pat says; “I don’t think I’ll
have a birthday party this year”…Then we say, “Of course
you will, you always do”, to which Pat says; “Oh, okay,
let’s do it then”. Then it’s full on into organising mode,
usually with the talented celebration planning maestro
Denis O’Reilly as enabler. Denis and his team pulled out
all stops for Pat's 90th and it was a three-day extravaganza
comprising four events. Pretty much everyone
was exhausted, except Pat. He felt energised for the year
ahead, and we wouldn't have it any other way.
A big presence in our lives 245