Vic: Father and son fire victims farewelled in Stawell

AAP General News (Australia)
02-01-2006
Vic: Father and son fire victims farewelled in Stawell

By Mike Hedge

STAWELL, Vic, Feb 1 AAP - They granted a wish for Zeke Wilson as they said goodbye
him in Stawell today.

But it was one the 12-year-old could never have imagined would be fulfilled so soon.

Just before Zeke and his father Malcolm "Milky" Wilson died 10 days ago in the bushfires
that swept through western Victoria, he told one of his sisters he wanted everyone to
wear his favourite colour at his funeral.

Today, the boy and his dad who were inseparable best mates were farewelled by their
family and friends, almost all of them wearing something pink.

"Zeke had been talking with his sister Jacinta about death," said Major Alan Laurens
of the Salvation Army.

"He told her that when he died he wanted pink everywhere," Major Laurens said.

As they gathered under a flowering gum across the road from the park where they run
the famous footrace for which the town is best known, the mourners heard about a boy who
"was a man before his time" and a man who was devoted to him.

Zeke's sister Jacinta told of a compassionate, charming practical joker, his teachers
of a born leader and his uncle of the love his father had for him.

"I wasn't the best influence on him," Jacinta Wilson said.

"But Zeke could work it all out for himself."

Malcolm Wilson's mate Eric Lee said his friend was the sort of bloke who would never
let you down.

It was Mr Wilson's willingness and desire to help that, at least in part, led to his death.

As the fires swept through the Grampians near Stawell last Sunday week, Mr Wilson set
off with Zeke to help defend his mother's farm from the flames.

Only two kilometres from the property their car became engulfed in smoke and hit a tree.

The bodies of the father and son were found under a blanket in the front seat where
they had huddled in the vain hope that the flames would pass over them.

Zeke should have been starting high school today.

Instead, his schoolmates were standing in the spitting rain gazing teary-eyed at his
coffin draped with a Richmond football club scarf, a motorbike helmet and a cricket trophy.

Alongside it was his father's, decorated with a black cowboy hat.

Major Laurens, who conducted the funeral service, called on the 500-or-so crowd not
to mourn, but to celebrate the lives of Zeke and his father.

But as they watched his coffin being carried away by his mother Sharon and sisters
Jacinta and Kayla, their difficulty in mustering anything but grief could hardly have
been more obvious.

AAP mh/dk/lma/de

KEYWORD: BUSHFIRES VIC FUNERAL NIGHTLEAD

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