A Letter to Clyde Packer.(Obituary)

The Honourable Robert Clyde Packer, a long-time friend and supporter of Quadrant, died recently at the age of sixty-six. The following was read at the memorial service for him in Sydney's St James' Church on 15th May 2001, on behalf of Barry Humphries, a close friend of Clyde's, by Clyde's son Francis.

We at Quadrant also extend our condolences to Clyde's family.

Dear Clyde,

I am sorry we didn't get a chance to bid each other goodbye. There are a lot of things I wanted to say, but isn't that always the case. Recently, I threatened to visit another old friend of mine who's been sick for a long time. Beforehand, on the phone, he said: "I ought to warn you, I'm not exactly in showroom condition."

Well, Clyde, you haven't been in showroom condition either for quite a while, and I suppose I've been bidding you a slow and sad farewell for a few years now; but it was a shock to hear that after all that suffering, which you endured without a single complaint, you finally got fed up and left us to it.

I wonder if you'd be surprised, glancing over your shoulder at the gathering at this church today, to see how many people cared about you, and loved you as well. If you were here--and quite possibly you are--I can imagine you looking across the aisle, jingling the change in your pocket, and saying in a pretty audible sotto voce:

"There's old so and so. What a bloody hypocrite to show his face at my memorial service!"