This image features on my Cybefriary Blog and captures the now demolished St Laurence Friary in Wynnum North on the day I took my first vows with the Capuchin Friars. in 1974
Now 40 years later the first of this group has passed away. The tall friar, third from the left is Paul Hanbridge, writer and amateur geologist who died in Sydney on 19 January 2015
We first met as young postulants in 1972. Your family welcomed me and you generously invited me to spend my holiday break with you in Leichhardt.
I have so many memories of the great conversations with your parents, Hazel and Len. You and I were very different.
This photo of our group on our first profession day is one of my treasures. Only Catholics who have survived a Noviciate year can understand the memories and relationships it leaves.The six of us in this image were a pretty amazing group of two yanks and four true blue Aussies.
After your ordination our paths diverged as I had moved into exploring my masculinity and my passion for social and political reform.When I left the friars in 1977 there was as much loss as excitement as I began a new chapter in my life. I followed your journey with interest as you committed your life to service in religious research and writing.Those days are as distant as time in Eliot's "The Journey of the Magi" and we have both lived the rhythm of life and death in so many ways. But now, this death, your passing leaves me with tears and memories. Farewell my old friend. May the angels carry you to paradise and may the company of Franciscans welcome you home to eternal rest.
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