FEBRUARY 04 OBITUARY
FOR Con was diagnosed with prostate and bladder cancer and had radiation and chemo-therapy. The latter stages of chemo really knocked him for a six. He entered the Mater in June to get over the chemo thinking he’d be there only a short time. However he died at 9.30am on November 11 having received the last rites just ten minutes before. Both of us were born in Roma roughly three years apart. Con very early in life showed one of his very special attributes, namely a tremendous ability to remember events, faces and names.He was a real scholar in that he studied several languages through all his life. Even after he retired, he studied Hebrew, Greek and German at the University. He was already very fluent in Italian, which he learned for his overseas trip in 1963. Con made friends easily and had many of them. Most were really long-time friends; a large number from his school days at Mt Carmel, Charters Towers, Downlands, Toowoomba and Nudgee here in Brisbane. Sadly, Con never married but he was a sort of surrogate father to my four girls, whom he spoiled rotten. He was more than just an adult to all the children of his friends - he was their friend too. And so to music. Con and I grew up with classical music. We heard classics almost entirely and we didn’t even have a radio until after 1939. So Con grew up loving the classics. He learned and attained professional competence on the violin and spent countless hours all his life, practising. One of the saddest days was when he had to give it away because of arthritis in his wrist. But when one door closed, Con opened another. He had sung in the local church choir but he then decided to concentrate on singing. He had lessons, became very competent with a big bass voice and joined what was The Gap Choir, now called The Serenata Singers. He became their conductor, had lessons in that too, and for the last years just sang with them. He was a gentleman in the usual, and also in the literal sense. He was a staunch Catholic and a lover of classic art in all its forms of music, painting, writing and poetry. One of he things I will really miss are our Sunday sessions. We’d go to 6.30 am Mass together then alternate breakfast and a yarn at each other’s place. We’d been doing this for some ten years since our Mother died - even though he made terrible porridge! Con’s special wishes were three: (i) to be home for Christmas (ii) to sing again with The Serenata Singers and (iii) to read here in this Church. Today I’m standing in for him and I’m proud to be his brother. Ed
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