Remembering Sir Ed
Most NZers feel a sense of shared pride in Sir Ed, as he was affectionately known. A good, solid, decent Kiwi bloke who excelled at what he put his hand to, remained humble, and gave more to others than he was ever given.
I remember meeting him one day at high school. He'd talked to our house about what he was doing in Nepal (our house was named after him, had a statue of him in the courtyard, and fundraised for his projects every year), and prefects and teachers were invited to have morning tea with Sir Ed and Lady June. (And finally I began to see the benefits of being a prefect.)
One of my friends announced he was going to ask Sir Ed to sign a $5 bill. Suddenly, we were all frantically looking for our wallets and borrowing money from each other, so we could do the same.
Sir Ed was bemused by it, but took it in his stride, signing each bill carefully and chuckling a little as he did. And then we had scones and talked about *really important* things, like what we were studying and how we felt about the upcoming internal exams. Eventually they left, and we had to go back to class, and life went on. But I kept hold of that $5 bill for a long time.
I remember meeting him one day at high school. He'd talked to our house about what he was doing in Nepal (our house was named after him, had a statue of him in the courtyard, and fundraised for his projects every year), and prefects and teachers were invited to have morning tea with Sir Ed and Lady June. (And finally I began to see the benefits of being a prefect.)
One of my friends announced he was going to ask Sir Ed to sign a $5 bill. Suddenly, we were all frantically looking for our wallets and borrowing money from each other, so we could do the same.
Sir Ed was bemused by it, but took it in his stride, signing each bill carefully and chuckling a little as he did. And then we had scones and talked about *really important* things, like what we were studying and how we felt about the upcoming internal exams. Eventually they left, and we had to go back to class, and life went on. But I kept hold of that $5 bill for a long time.
that note's probably worth a bit now.
Most clothes and things look better on babies and toddlers, than they do on adults. It's just the nature of things.