September 2019. On their way back from Lake Mungo, Salvatore and MaryAnne dropped into Sea Lake and stayed at the Royal Hotel. It had been taken over and done up and was, you know, pretty fancy.

Mum and dad were having dinner when he, looking over at the occupants of another table, said of the older woman sitting there, “I wonder if she’s a local?” Salv went over to ask and a moment later returned to introduce MaryAnne to Olive Nuske, who he had met as Olive Bond at Sea Lake Primary in the early 1940s.

Olive rang MaryAnne last weekend to ask how she was getting on, and said that it would be her birthday the next day, 8 February, and mum asked if she would be 84. Yes, said Olive. So she’s a month older than Salv. MaryAnne sent her a card.

Salv’s notes on the encounter:

So. Today. First day of 2021. Friday the first of January. At the fire at five, mum shows me this photo:

It’s tiny – 6 x 8 centimetres – and on the back dad has written:

And also, if you turn the photo around you can read the cast list, also written by dad, presumably at another time, certainly in another pen:

So here they are, these siblings and this one cousin, out in the dusty back yard of ‘Caleo’s Up-To-Date Cafe’ in Best Street Sea Lake in the Mallee circa 1946, not long before the big move to the big smoke, which occurs in 1947. Our dad, he’s circa 9 years old in this photo. Here he is:

What a lovely looking kid.

“You have a big life ahead of you, young man,” I say to him.

“You’re going to make a lot of people very happy.”

Each Friday for the last few months (three? Anna, what do you reckon?) at 5pm we light a fire in the Justin fire bin. There’s always a bit of kindling that builds up during the week and we also have the logs that Justin and Nick chainsawed off the limb from the nature strip plane tree that came down in that big wind a few months ago.

Last week when mum woke up on the Saturday morning there was a thin wisp of smoke still curling up.

Today the attendees were: MaryAnne, Tim, Bernard and Zebedee (who drew the above picture).

As usual, pizza was served.

If you’re ever nearby on a Friday, come along.

This morning I shave dad’s chin and help him to shower. Aunty Josie drops off some crumbed steaks (a great favourite). Kevin Laws, another St Vincent De Paul buddy of Salv’s, drops in for a very quick discussion of who owes who a coffee. As he is leaving, Kevin observes to MaryAnne that Salv is a Patriarch.

In the arvo Angelina Ursic drops by to pick up something. Salv says: “Come in!” Ange says to Salv that he can talk to the people that have died before: Joyce, Pat, Gloria, Frederick. Apparently Frederick saw a little Indian woman in his room before he died – who was THAT?

Tim and Luke drop by in the early arvo and hoist dad back into bed.

Above, Salv’s sleeping hand (upper) in Anna’s hand (lower).

These two photos turn up at 41.
Sent by Anne Dunne,
close personal friend of Josephine,
Salv’s youngest sister.

I intuit that the baby here is David John,
Roma and Frederick’s first born.
Maybe 1966…..or thereabouts.

(identity of baby corrected by MaryAnne to Anita, to whom Salv and Jo were/are godparents. March 2021)

What interests me particularly now,
some five months after Salv’s death,
is the protective gesture of Salv’s hands
both right and left,
shielding the baby from any harsh sunlight.

I know this gesture well.
And it is deeply poignant 
To see it so well captured here.

One shot is outside St Monica’s,
the bluestone Catholic Church 
very close to Salv’s family home
in Moonee Ponds.

Josephine and Salv, 
presumably the godparents
hold the baby 
and Salv
still a dashing unmarried man
holds his left hand protectively 
over the baby’s face,
shielding him from the sun.

The second shot is on the verandah
at 5A The Strand 
with parents, Roma and Frederick
and godparents Josephine and Salv.
Again the hand
this time the right hand,
shields the baby’s tender face 
& sensitive eyes from undue harm.

Past the columns and the fence 
the tree tops of
Queen’s Park can be glimpsed.

Historical data it now may be
but I imagine
I can see 
in the gestures 
of this one young man
the foretaste of the tender father
he was destined to become!

MaryAnne: November 2020

On Tuesday 10 November there was a Thanksgiving Mass delivered online by St Vincent de Paul for whom Salv did a lot of good Samaritan work – delivering food vouchers, helping people out. Tony Bolzan was one of dad’s wingmen in this work and sent a message to mum:

  Hi Mary Anne, 

                              As I previously mentioned Vinnies does a Thanksgiving Mass in November each year to celebrate members/volunteers who have passed away.  Normally it is at St. Francis in the city but this year it will be streamed .

                            At the Mass a candle is lit for all the passed members however this year families who have a deceased member can light a candle at home during the Mass. 

                            Vinnies have sent a candle to remember and honour Salv’s  life and great service work.  I will deliver today the  candle sent from Vinnies for you and family. Please find below the link for the Mass. 

                                       Thks and Rgds. Tony

Mum invited Dad’s siblings and Teams of Our Lady people to watch it. Mass-going people. She lit the candle and watched the show in the lounge room and took this photo:

There’s his name in the credits sequence, on the same screen that he watched all those westerns and musicals in his last months.

Here is a blood red rose
That grows aslant the window:
The very window in our lounge room
that gave our Salv his last views of life
in his beloved garden.

The fire drum
lit in the crisp early winter evenings
of his last weeks
is just below the window
positioned so he could see
the high swirls of fire
as they leapt 
into the dark winter sky.

The path to the very gate
that he exited on his way
to work and anywhere
so many many many thousands of times
Now closed to him, permanently,
is flanked by trees tall 
that once were small.
Standing now like sentries,
In their high hats,
Observing all entries
And exits: all.

All this was on view to Salv 
As he looked out on his favoured world
Restricted now by cancer,
To one room and one view.

And this was the gate 
We carried him to….
Me, and his seven works of art,
His beloved children…

At the gate
This gate,
His coffin was released
Into the arms of his older grandchildren,
Tenderly did he go
To his waiting Prado!

All this 5 months ago
And now the blood red roses
Frame that view! 
And a magpie struts past!
Digging and singing! 

• MaryAnne Caleo 5 November 2020

After a night with Tim and Luke and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), Salvatore’s morning visit 9.50 to 10.50am is from Glenis and Peter, and the talk is of 4WD trips and The Italian Trip.

Later in the morning, Anna drops off the Aldi catalogue.

And at 4.45pm, Stan from Melbourne City Mission turns up with the game-changer: the electric bed. Later that evening, after watching the VERY STRANGE 1955 version of Oklahoma! (those dance sequences! blimey!), Bernard and Susan help Salv into it.

Roma and Frances visit on Monday 4 May from 11.30am to 12.30pm. There are mask hugs and photos and memories. After the visit, a snooze:

Later in the day, Bernard passes Phil’s Bakehouse and George yells out, “How’s Dad?”. Bernard goes in and says that it’s not looking good. George says, “Tell him we love him.”

Luke edited this film together out of a cache of footage from an old digital video camcorder that was in the family for a while there early in the new century. Marriages, babies and parties seem to date it from 2003 until MaryAnne and Salv’s 4oth wedding anniversary celebration in 2007.

Music by Ratatat