The death of my father has taught me the real meaning of gratitude.
“The greatest regret is to have lived as if life were a dress rehearsal”.
by Matthew Syed at The Sunday Times
And with you Dad……
“it was never a dress rehearsal …..it was the best performance”
– Eulogy of Kelwyn Yelland by Susan Papps
Next week it will be six months since my father passed, a great supporter of our business and always there to chat too regarding pressures. Although he was a farmer and had nothing to do with the wine industry, I think he began to realise we all had similar issues and problems.
Many years ago, after my father and I both had near-fatal ends to our lives, we celebrated that Christmas with some exceptional wines from our cellar.
After this happened to me, I didn’t want to miss out never experiencing these extraordinary wines we had purchased.
The Christmas in question we enjoyed some very special wines, and my father asked the question how much are these wines? I think as soon as he asked, he felt like retracting the answer as he would not like what I replied. My father was a frugal man and taught us to save our money any way we could, and having a love affair with wine breaks every one of these rules. At the age of 20, I purchased two bottles of Grange, bear in mind there was nothing left of my paycheck!
That Christmas is exactly what wine should be, sharing wines with people and living every day like a final performance.
Both my father and I lived every day, wanting to learn more and experience everything we could.
At this time of the year most wineries like to advise you on what wines to buy for Father’s Day. I stopped myself and thought I would like to post this after Father’s Day, as I believe you do not need to celebrate someone special just for one day and maybe it’s any day, stop and share something amazing to honour the person and make every day count.
-Susan Papps