Vale Wendy

Until the funeral, I knew hardly anything about Wendy, I didn’t even know her last name, and I saw her for only a few days each year at various rallies or events around Australia, what I did know, was, that when we met up at those places she arrived and left with Col, that she had ridden on the back with Col to places I had been, and to a hell of a lot that I hadn’t.

I knew her first name was Wendy, that she was a friend, and, most importantly, that I needed to know nothing else about her for it to remain that way. There was always a hug when we met and one on saying goodbye, and in the time between those two hugs, there was Wendy, just being herself, effusive is probably the word that best describes Wendy’s personality, and on occasions I think that Col must have despaired at trying to keep up with her.

A show of the love and respect that Wendy engendered was obviously apparent at her funeral at Coffs Harbour which was standing room only, with both sides of the driveway out front lined with Harleys, Col and Wendy’s Mid North Coast NSW HOG Chapter was well represented, and was joined by riders from interstate and other cities in NSW.

It was during the service and the delivery of the eulogies that a few of us, Kaz and myself included, gained a greater insight into the Wendy that we knew, and I would like to think that we all ended up with some extra things to remember her by.

The service over, Wendy’s coffin was carried out past the lines of bikes and mourners, and then transported to the Coffs Harbour Lawn Cemetery, where, once again the mourners lined the sides as she was carried to her final resting place.

Although Wendy has left us physically, memories of her will live on in the minds of hundreds, if not thousands of bikers, whose lives she bounced into, brightened up, and then bounced out of again.