#Covid-19: Wall of Remembrance – Graeme Carr

Graeme Stuart Carr died of Covid-19 on January 14 at the age of 61.

Our dad always had the most positive outlook on life, and his motto was always live life to its fullest.

We moved to Benoni in 1988 after dad was transferred from the Eastern Cape and a brief stay in PTA. Trisha (youngest daughter) was born in Benoni and both girls (Tamryn eldest) attended Tom Newby Primary School and Benoni High School.

Graeme was a regular golfer and was a member at the Benoni Lake Club. He frequented the club every week for a game of golf, but probably more than once for a drink after work. As we were older, we also used to meet there on a Wednesday for happy hour.

Dad would so proudly introduce us to his buddies – and if those walls could talk, I’m sure they would be smiling at all the good times and sing/dance-a-longs to the jukebox that we loved. Never a dull moment when the Carr family was present.

We were nicknamed “Mini Carr” by the bartender, Jack.

His personality was contagious and he always surrounded himself with people and in turn made amazing friends.

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Both mom (Marion) and dad always welcomed friends and family with open arms, so our home was always full of people, eventually being nicknamed “Carr Bar”.

Mom and dad moved to Umdloti, in KZN, in 2012 after dad was transferred to the marine department of International Paint.

They moved to KZN without knowing many people, but it wasn’t long before the Umdloti locals got to know and love them as much as we did.

Their apartment was on the beach, so dad spent many hours admiring sunrises, sunsets, ships and always any interesting action that took place on the beach. They made KZN their new home, but never forgot their Benoni roots and special friends.

Family was the most important thing to him. He used to say to us girls: “For you, I killa the bull.”

He was the glue; he made any place feel like home – as long as he was there. He always instilled that we made a plan to get together and whenever we did, we had the best time.

We wouldn’t describe our family dynamics as normal, as we were so open and honest with each other and were encouraged to just be ourselves, so we enjoyed partying with our parents – and all our friends did too.

He was such a proud grandfather to his two grandsons and we will ensure we keep his memory in their minds for all the years to come.

We are beyond distraught to lose our dad and precious Graeme to Covid-19. It still doesn’t feel real. It feels like we need to wake up from a bad dream.

Our thoughts are with all the people out there who have gone through the same loss.

If we could share any light from this very dark feeling, it would be to try and live in the moment, don’t take things for granted, take everything in, love your people hard, don’t miss any opportunities to catch up, even if it’s a quick call or message to check in, and always laugh, as dad really lived his life this way.

Thank you so much to everyone for their love and support during this difficult time. It means the world to us.

Trisha, Tam and Maz

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