Mark Simpfendorfer 1964 – 2009

September 7, 2009
by Rodney Olsen
15 Comments

Mark.jpgWords really don’t come close to describing how I feel right now. On Friday night this world lost a generous, caring man who I was privileged enough to call friend.

Mark Simpfendorfer left this world for a better place following a massive heart attack. He was a director and producer working in film, television and corporate video. His 3D IMAX movie, Red Crabs: Australia’s Christmas Island, is set for release later this year.

My head is full of thoughts that race through my mind, only stopping for an instant before continuing on their journey. Thoughts jump between what was, what could have been and what the future looks like without Mark. I really haven’t slept well over the past couple of nights as my mind keeps racing and trying to come to terms with what has happened. My heart aches for his family, especially his four children, for other friends and for the friendship I’ve lost.

Mark was there for some of my most memorable life experiences. We travelled half way across Australia together in 2003 as he videoed a team of cyclists I was leading on a marathon fund raising ride from Perth to Hobart. He later created a short documentary on the ride that was shown on Australian Christian Channel.

Earlier in 2003 we had travelled to India together. Mark was there to capture my ride from Agra, home of the Taj Mahal, to Delhi. It was an amazing experience for both of us. Neither of us really knew what to expect when we set off for India but we loved our time there and were more than happy to return two years later with a small team of Aussie cyclists. We were talking about returning next year around the time of the Commonwealth Games in Delhi.

The last time I saw Mark was at our new home just a couple of weeks ago. He dropped in to capture some video for a project he was completing and we shared a Limca, the lemon lime drink that we enjoyed so much in India. Several months ago Pauline had found a shop nearby that imports Limca from India so when I knew that Mark was to visit I made sure there was some ice cold Limca in the fridge.

Mark was also a major part of one of an extremely significant day for Pauline and me. He agreed to video our wedding back in December 1992. The resulting video, as expected, was spectacular.

Even though he’d been through some deep waters in recent years, Mark always stayed upbeat and optimistic. In many ways things were looking up for him and he had such great plans for the future.

Mark’s legacy will live on in his remarkable children.

He taught me a lot about life through what he said and especially the way he lived. I know that I certainly won’t be the only one who will miss Mark. He was a great friend and I look forward to catching up with him when my time comes to leave this life.



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90

August 15, 2009
by Rodney Olsen
2 Comments

Tom_Olsen_Cook.jpgDad would have been 90 yesterday if he’d lived.

I still miss him so much and wish he could be around to experience the little things of life. I’d love to invite him over to see our new house. I know he’d be so thrilled to see how well Emily and James are doing as they grow into the amazing young people that they are.

This time of year is not only a time of remembering the anniversary of dad’s birth but also of his death.

In August of 2002, dad was seriously ill in hospital. Although he was a Christian in his teens, he had not followed Christ after his service as a cook in the second world war.

As he put it he “made his peace with Jesus” while in hospital. In the week following his decision he talked about going home to Jesus his Saviour and of seeing his wife again. (Mum passed away in 1987.) Our family had never heard dad talk that way before. There had been a huge change in him.

On Saturday at the end of that week he was in a pretty bad way. We went to the hospital to visit and he wasn’t really there. Most of the time he was in a very deep sleep. James was just three and a half at the time and I held him in my arms beside the bed. James then started to sing Amazing Grace. It was a song that I would sing to James as I put him to bed each night. I joined James quietly to help him with the words. Dad opened his eyes and acknowledged us there. We stayed a little longer and then headed home. Dad passed away that night just a few days before his 83rd birthday.

We were the last visitors to see dad and I imagine the last thing he would have seen and heard while on this earth was a very small boy, his grandson, singing about the Amazing Grace that he now knows so well.

(Dad was a chef and continued cooking well after his retirement. The photo in this post was him working in the kitchen of the retirement home where he lived in his final years.)



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Just a Thought

May 2, 2009
by Rodney Olsen
7 Comments

Swine flu has sent the world into a panic. Governments all over the globe are trying to work out what can be done to stop the problem growing. (And rightly so.)

My understanding is that this has the potential to kill thousands of people. So far the most effected area for the virus is Mexico where over 300 people have been confirmed to have swine flu with over a dozen confirmed deaths.

All this has happened over a number of days and something obviously needs to be done to stop the spread of this disease but I’m scratching my head a little.

Today alone, over 25 000 children died of hunger or preventable disease. Every day this happens. Week after week. Month after month. Year after year. 25 000 children a day.

Why have we been so quick to act to stop swine flu yet we refuse to stop poverty and hunger, even though it is within our means and our control to do so? Could it be that those 25 000 children, even though they’re just like the children we tuck into bed each night, are far, far away and yet swine flu has the potential to touch us and those we love?

Surely not. We couldn’t be that selfish could we?

Just a thought.



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Carina's Funeral

February 11, 2009
by Rodney Olsen
3 Comments

As I mentioned a couple of days ago, Pauline’s sister, Carina Berg, passed away at 6:30 Sunday evening at Bethesda Hospital, Claremont. Pauline and her parents were at her side when she passed from this life.

A service to celebrate her life and remember the impact she made on each one of us will be held at 10:00 a.m. this Friday at Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church, 497 Marmion Street, Booragoon. Please feel free to join us, either as a friend of Carina or to support her family.

Please pass on this information to anyone you know who was a friend of Carina.

Thank you for your prayers, kind thoughts and support over the past month as Carina battled the cancer which took her life.



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The sad life and death of Dolores Aguilar

August 21, 2008
by Rodney Olsen
22 Comments

coffin.jpgWhat do you hope people will say about you when you die? Does it really matter to you?

Sometimes I wonder who’ll turn up at my funeral when my life here is over. Will those who do show up have good things to say or will their silence tell a different story?

I will have no chance to control what’s said when the time comes but I can do something about it while I’m still here by the way I choose to live my life.

Will I leave friends and family with good memories? I guess that’s up to me and the choices I make every day of my life.

I wonder about what kind of difference I’m making to the wider world. Will I be missed by more than those close to me? Will there be those I’ve never met who will be thankful that I was once alive? Am I making a difference through my work and through the the volunteer tasks I undertake?

I was saddened to read the following obituary for a lady who died earlier this month.

Dolores Aguilar
1929 – Aug. 7, 2008
Dolores Aguilar, born in 1929 in New Mexico, left us on August 7, 2008. She will be met in the afterlife by her husband, Raymond, her son, Paul Jr., and daughter, Ruby.

She is survived by her daughters Marietta, Mitzi, Stella, Beatrice, Virginia and Ramona, and son Billy; grandchildren, Donnelle, Joe, Mitzie, Maria, Mario, Marty, Tynette, Tania, Leta, Alexandria, Tommy, Billy, Mathew, Raymond, Kenny, Javier, Lisa, Ashlie and Michael; great-grandchildren, Brendan, Joseph, Karissa, Jacob, Delaney, Shawn, Cienna, Bailey, Christian, Andre Jr., Andrea, Keith, Saeed, Nujaymah, Salma, Merissa, Emily, Jayci, Isabella, Samantha and Emily. I apologize if I missed anyone.

Dolores had no hobbies, made no contribution to society and rarely shared a kind word or deed in her life. I speak for the majority of her family when I say her presence will not be missed by many, very few tears will be shed and there will be no lamenting over her passing.

Her family will remember Dolores and amongst ourselves we will remember her in our own way, which were mostly sad and troubling times throughout the years. We may have some fond memories of her and perhaps we will think of those times too. But I truly believe at the end of the day ALL of us will really only miss what we never had, a good and kind mother, grandmother and great-grandmother. I hope she is finally at peace with herself. As for the rest of us left behind, I hope this is the beginning of a time of healing and learning to be a family again.

There will be no service, no prayers and no closure for the family she spent a lifetime tearing apart. We cannot come together in the end to see to it that her grandchildren and great-grandchildren can say their goodbyes. So I say here for all of us, GOOD BYE, MOM.

It’s hard to imagine that anyone would write such an obituary but they did. I checked this one out on Snopes just to make sure it wasn’t a hoax.

How devestating to think that this woman could have made such an impression on the world she left behind. How sad that no one thought enough of her to even arrange a service to farewell her.

When they finally shut the lid on the box and send me on my way, I hope that someone will shed a tear. How do you hope to be remembered?



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