IN MEMORIAM
Vale – Eugene “ Beau ” Shearer 10 / 09 / 1924 – 27 / 07 / 2020
Some people search for treasure in their lifetime and may never find it . For our family , treasure was in the form of a father and a grandfather . We were so very blessed to have him in our lives .
Thank you everyone for gathering here today to share in the loving memory of Eugene Alfred Shearer , known as “ Beau ” or to my sister and I , Poppy Beau .
For those of you who don ’ t know me , my name is Samantha and I am Pop ’ s eldest granddaughter . I am hoping that my words today will explain just how much he meant to us all , but I can never truly capture in words how amazing Poppy was , and for anyone who knew him you will know this to be true .
A little history in Pop ’ s life before I was blessed to love him : Pop was raised by his parents George and Lily Shearer , who met on a sheep station near Brewarrina , “ meant to be if you ask me ”.
He was raised as the middle child with his six siblings Mary Sylvia , Kathleen , Lawrence , George and Walter “ Ted ”.
After school , he became a shearer at 16 and followed work to Warren . It was here that he became friends with my Nanny Dawn ’ s brothers and was later introduced to her , saying she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen , and it was love at first sight . This is where the greatest love story I know of , all began .
Pop shore for 50 years and the most he completed in a day was 235 . He was one of a team called “ The Aces ”, along with Neville Robertson , Jim Rose and Clarrie Kentwell .
During his time as a shearer he also worked at Warren Services Club , for roughly 30 years .
After Pop asked Nan to marry him , they went on to build a family life together , which started with the birth of my Uncle Nigel , who sadly passed after birth . Even though this was a sad time for them , they had so much love to give the world and they gave birth to my beautiful mother Colleen .
Pop adored my Nan , the love of his life , and my mother . He was so proud of all my mother achieved in life and was so happy when I and my sister Jessica came into the world .
Jess and I have so many wonderful memories with Poppy ; he made us laugh , taught us how to crawl and swim and showed us so much love throughout our entire lives .
I am pretty sure that I must have been annoying on our trips from Sydney to Warren always asking “ are we there yet ?” but Pop would always smile , hold my hand and say , “ not until the sun goes down my love ”.
He was such a patient and caring person and he was a devoted Catholic who always believed in his faith , no matter the turmoil he faced in life , like losing my mum . He always believed in the word of the Lord and also kept me on my path with faith when I would question it .
I would like to ask that you all think of a wonderful memory you shared with Pop and smile while he rests in peace with his two beautiful ladies , and watches over us today .
Let ’ s have a beer in commemoration of him today , allowing his memory to live on .
The above is Uncle Beau ’ s eulogy , delivered by his eldest granddaughter Samantha Butler at his funeral service at Our Lady of Perpetual Succour Catholic Church , Warren on July 30 , 2020 .
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BREWARRINA NEWS