Farewell to the father

Updated September 23 2014 - 10:08am, first published August 30 2014 - 3:00am
All smiles: Tim Elliott's parents, Max and Rosemary, in Sydney in the early 1950s. Photo: courtesy of Tim Elliott
All smiles: Tim Elliott's parents, Max and Rosemary, in Sydney in the early 1950s. Photo: courtesy of Tim Elliott

I've heard it said that when someone dies, the first thing we forget is the sound of their voice, but my father has been dead now for 26 years and I can still hear him as if it were yesterday. I can hear him singing in the shower, I can hear him laughing, I can even hear him pouring a drink. But most of all I can hear him screaming and ranting, tearing the house down with his big broken heart, making it quake with his rage and sadness.