Still in Covid isolation in Halls Creek - so what else to do.
Patience all I promise that we are coming to the end of the Opus - There are 26 bits and this is the 24th.
Patrick Durack:
Well the Patrick Duracks will be a bit shorter, because we don't have quite such a ready supporting cast, and mercifully they've been very quiet so far.
But it's getting a bit towards the end. We're not in the west, but we're in the south, and from down there we'd like to thank the motivators of this, who I think largely are Jim and Matthew from our end, for getting us all together, for giving us the excuse, and doing it. So the Patrick Duracks would like to thank all those who we think did more about this than we did.
When I tried to write a few words, I thought well, what is this actually all about? and it could have been a celebration of a straightforward birthday, or we could have done a 50 years wedding, but when I think about it, you can't really escape it, it's a celebration of admitting that, well let's not say old, but no longer really young, and all the things that go with that. For you, being wise, contented, successful, loved, and I think that's what this is, a celebration of those things.
I obviously have all the memories, the same memories, the same stories, and could talk about those, but what I'd like to think about a little is how we still need you to provide us an example, as you have provided an example over the years, to continue to provide us with an example, particularly I think in how we form our relationships, you with your children and us with you, and your friends, and particularly in my case I think, Dad's example of how to form relationships in business has been a key thing to my development.
So I'd like to look to you to continue to give us an example into the future, and for you to continue with confidence and optimism and good humour and dignity, and with lots of love and support from all of us.
And I think everybody's in to a few quotes: mine's perhaps in keeping from Dr Spock: Live long, and prosper!
APPLAUSE
Durack OPUS 1998 24 Patrick Durack