Today my Dad would have turned 79, but tragically his vehicle and a passenger train collided at the train crossing just two minutes from his home in 2023. We have so many questions about that day which we will never get answers to, and we need to accept that a tragic accident is simply that. There is no why or how, it just is.
I am mostly okay now, and am doing my best to live exactly how Dad would want – to the absolute fullest – but my grief catches up with me every now and then, making me wonder if I’ll ever really be okay.
Since our hearts were shattered on August 16, 2023, Dad has visited me twice in my dreams. The first was so vivid that when I woke up, for a moment I forgot he was gone.
He was full of life and vitality, standing in a crop somewhere on the NSW Liverpool Plains he loved so much. As usual he was wearing a squashed hat that he’d accidentally sat on. As usual he was grinning from ear to ear and talking non-stop – maybe something about the soil health, also likely something about the history of the farm and the people who’d walked this paddock in the generations before us.
I like to think Dad continues to walk over these rich, chocolate soils in his crooked hat telling stories that will never end.
John Waters Hosking, 23rd March 1946 – 16th August 2023
– In honour of our kind-hearted, country gentleman who was loved by many, I have published the story I wrote for him and gave at his memorial service at the Quirindi Sporting Clay Target Club on September 2, 2023 here.
– And here is one of my favourite photos of Dad with a twinkle in his eyes, living his life to the fullest, as he always did. Cheers to you Dad, we miss you x
