Fay Rosemary Maloney

Thanks to Tim and Andrew and Hom (a Thai close family friend) for their fine tributes to Fay at today’s well-attended funeral service at Sacred Heart church, Croydon, conducted by Deacon Phil King. As I arrived I met a large bunch of Fay’s women swimming group and, having myself managed a couple of laps at Fitzroy this morning, I started the occasion by getting up to date on Fay’s much-loved contribution to the Croydon veterans’ group. Different moments at funerals move different people. For me the playing of Brian’s party piece, ‘’She Moved Through the Fair’, was a high point today. It put me in touch with the intertwined lives of Fay and Brian, with Tim, Paul, David, Peter, Matthew and Andrew, with the daughters-in-law and grandchildren. Today’s stories rekindled our admiration for Fay. For example, they reminded us of our awe at her achievements as a 15-year-old school leaver, parent of six, who became an outstanding secondary teacher in Victoria and Thailand. Tim and Andrew mentioned Fay’s work in the campaign against nuclear weapons, and, sadly, we need our banners again. I sat with the younger Wrights who were all there, but at the cuppa afterwards Rae Iacano and I decided we might have been the only reps able to be present today from the oldies of that progressive and supportive community of 1960s-1970s at St Francis de Sales, Catholic parish, East Ringwood. Speaking for many absent friends, I wish to record how lucky and proud we of that circle are to have had Fay and Brian Maloney as friends in those heady days. We enjoyed their hospitality, including at Sandy Point, we shared our joys and sorrows, we were challenged by their conversation, we laughed at their jokes and we went away encouraged. To state the obvious, that Catholic world we knew at East Ringwood has collapsed, not only in Australia but throughout most of the English-speaking world. For most young people these days, living a good life, striving to save the planet and building a better wor

I have so many memories of our life together in St Francis de Sales Ringwood East all those years ago. The teachers, parents and students were a community who supported each other and enjoyed our lives together. Fay and her husband and boys were a family who included me in their family which meant so much to me. Now Fay can reap the rewards of a life well lived.