L to R. Kevin Mcintosh, Kathleen Larson-McGill and Alan Borg

On the night of Monday, 30th November, a good crowd turned up for the last dinner for 2020. We have had excellent guest speakers for our dinners. One member who has attended dinners for the last 25 years said ‘ I have enjoyed listening to everyone who has spoken in this time’.

At all our dinners we say the Prayer to Mary MacKillop followed by a reflection for five minutes on a religious subject. Rex Fraser (a Chaplin at Mirani High School) spoke about ”weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.” Psalm 30:5 shows us that God is with us in our darkest, despairing moments. By God’s grace we endure, get back up and joy comes again. Hope is eternal, our lives change but God doesn’t. We suffer broken promises, heartbreak and betrayal yet God is ever faithful. Let him dry your tears, His mercies are new every morning. Yesterday ended last night, it’s a new day, make up your mind to ENJOY it. 

Kevin McEvoy said grace, and after an enjoyable meal our guest speaker Kathleen Larsen-McGill gave a most interesting talk. Kathleen immediately revealed her Irish origins, but she did grow up in North London.  Kathleen had a love for horse racing, inherited from her father. This passion led to a career with Sky Racing UK. ‘ It was a wonderful job visiting racecourses and stables seeing the best horses, meeting owners, trainers and jockeys. It was a great life’. It was on a holiday trip to Australia that she met her future husband Craig. Her first taste of married life was living in Gove in the Northern Territory, quite a contrast coming from the cold of Ireland/England to the heat of the N T. Eventually Kathleen and Craig moved to Mackay. At one stage Kathleen was Parish Secretary at St Francis and St Marys.

Presently Kathleen is a Location Supervisor with Mackay Funerals.  She gave us a position description of working in such a place and also gave plenty of information about the funeral / cremation industry and the fallacy of many thoughts of what happens in the industry. At the finish of the talk questions kept coming on and on and Kathleen was keen to keep answering. Once again everyone enjoyed listening to Kathleen.

After the talk there was plenty of laughter and best wishes to one another for a Happy and Holy Christmas. Our next dinner is in February.

To Bishop Michael, Sr Kym and anyone else involved with the ‘Bishops Newsletter’ and to all the contributors and readers, we wish you all a Happy and Holy Christmas.

Graham Featherstone