rivettingKateTaylor

The funeral of a fellow Takapau golfing lady this week was an eye opener for a young thing like me (well, young in comparison!)

Biddy Moore was 96. She was still playing golf this time last year, albeit with the help of a golf cart. She went for a ride on her daughter’s polo pony on her 90th birthday… etc etc the celebration of her life was full of little stories like that. The guard of honour we made after the service, with our clubs arched over the path of the coffin, was an extremely poignant moment for me.

My first encounter with Biddy was as a new golfer, who mistakenly thought getting drawn against a (then) 94 year old at golf was a sure win. I out drove her off the tee every time. But surely and steadily – pop, pop, pop she went, up the middle of the fairway (as opposed to me zigzagging my way from trees on one side to trees on the other side), one chip, one putt and the hole was hers. More than once. A true lesson in not reading a book by its cover. And a true lesson in the nature of golf.

Not taking the opportunity to interview Biddy will be something I will regret for a long time. I was going to do a story on her while she was still playing golf, but a few weeks later, she had to give up the game she loved (age 95) and the story no longer had the same meaning. I should have interviewed her anyway – I wish I had.

To see the mark this wonderful, sweet lady made on the other ladies at golf is inspiring.  It’s easy to say nice things about people once they’ve passed, but she was honestly one of those people who was always positive, always smiling, always optimistic (which can be difficult at golf sometimes!) and always friendly.

Golf only became her hobby in her sixties (she won some titles but I can’t remember what they were). So with me starting in my 30s, I should have a nice little low handicap by the time I’m 95?!

When a friend of mine died when I was 21, there was a rainbow in the sky that morning and the minister tied some of the service around rainbows. When the friend’s nana died a few years later (a lovely nana with a nature very similar to Biddy), a double rainbow appeared on the morning of her funeral. Almost every time I see rainbows, I think of them, and I think of others I love who have passed on.

So I had to stop and photograph some very cool rainbows on my way home from Biddy’s funeral. Isn’t it funny how sometimes things in your memory or from your past, suddenly come into force once again. It seemed only fitting that this rainbow could be seen across the golf club.

For whatever reason, I love rainbows. 

RIP Biddy – you were an inspiration.