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Robert “Rob” Brodie

Opening Music - Hello Again by Neil Diamond  Welcome and Introduction – Alex Faulkner Good afternoon everyone, my name is Alex, and along with the staff from Botanical Funerals, I warmly welcome you here today to this service for Robert Brodie.  As we gather here today our thoughts are particularly with Rob’s wife Lyn, his daughters Nicole, Louise and Suzanne, and their families.  And on their behalf I would like to thank you for not only being here today to offer them your love and support, but also thank you for your words of comfort, your acts of kindness, and your expressions of love since Rob’s passing became known.   The reason that we are all here today is to acknowledge and to celebrate with love and respect Rob’s life of almost 76 years.  Every one of you here today had your own unique relationship with Rob, and therefore each of you will feel his loss differently.    However you all share the common bond of having known him, and over the years his friendship and his love enriched each of your lives immeasurably.  Rob was such a rich and valuable part of your personal world, and I am sure that all of you come here today with your own very personal memories and images of him.  It is so hard to say goodbye to that special person whom we love and have shared so much of our life with, and at a time like this grief is the most understandable and natural response.  Jamie Anderson, a writer wrote “grief I have learnt, is just really love.  It’s all the love you have to give, but cannot.  All of that unspent love gathers up in the corners of your eyes, the lump in your throat, and in the hollow part of your chest.  Grief is just love with no place to go.”    Today’s service is all about coming together as people who knew and loved Rob, to share our grief and to support one another in our loss.  It is also about taking some precious time to pay tribute to Rob’s life and to celebrate the person he was, the things he achieved, the lives he made a difference to, and those things which defined him as a person.  And I hope that in the midst of the sadness you feel, you will be able to smile at some of the stories shared today about Rob, because I am sure that he would want us to embrace his memory and to reflect on the many happy times we had with him.  It is now an honour for me to share with you the eulogy of Rob’s life and then following that we are going to hear some special tributes.  Eulogy – Alex Rob was born in Dundee, a coastal city in Eastern Scotland on the 7th of December 1945.  His parents were Maryann (who was always known as Nan) and Patrick Brodie, and he had two younger sisters Joan and Patrice both of whom are here today to farewell their older brother. When Rob was just shy of 5 years old the family immigrated here to Australia, taking the long six week journey by sea aboard the RMS Ormonde, arriving in Melbourne on the 16th of October 1950.  They settled in Morwell where Rob’s father Patrick worked at the Morwell Power station.  It was in Morwell that Nan and Pat had their second daughter Patrice followed by a second son Glenn who sadly died shortly after birth. Growing up in Morwell, Rob had a simple and happy childhood.    According to his sister Joan, he was a very mischievous young boy.  He was a very good swimmer, swimming in state level competitions.  He was a great boxer, a member of the Morwell Male Choir, and volunteered at the local YMCA.  After leaving school at the end of year 10, Rob began studying to become a draftsman.  However his heart wasn’t really in it and he decided to pursue other things.  While growing up in Vincent Rd a neighbour taught him the unique art of ventriloquism, and Rob loved it. He wanted to use it professionally.  He began performing at different venues with his puppet ‘Scotty Beckett and as his reputation grew he was given a job as a kids entertainer at Channel 10 in Gippsland. He made many life long friendships there. Following this Rob joined Ballarat TV station BTV 6, where his talents were rewarded by being given his own Television show The Rob Brodie Show with Scotty Beckett and the BTV6 Juniors. It played live 5 nights a week in the late afternoon.  Some people would literally send in bananas for another one of his puppets Pepi the monkey, to the station via the post office.  Rob continued in the local theatre scene, participating in musicals and joined a band called The Explosive Mind, they managed a no 1 hit “Let it be me” with Rob contributing to the vocals. It was during this period that Lyn and Rob meet.  There Story.  They met at a dance in Ballarat when Lyn was undertaking nursing training. The handsome and very popular Rob swept Lyn off her feet. A blossoming romance ensued and Rob and Lyn were married on the 7th of October 1967 in Horsham, thousands of fans came to see and congratulate the newlyweds.