February 2011 A Tribute

Robert Hugh Cammock ... a signature look

Four years have passed since Rob died in February 2011. Sometimes it still feels like yesterday. There are some gaps that are never filled and Rob leaving us is one of those gaps. I am not sure that we will ever get used to not having him around, I guess we have learnt to adapt over these last four years but it would have been so much better if we didn't have to.

I remember when Rob told us he had cancer, it seemed impossible to think of him not being around. We all assumed he would get better and life would carry on as normal, I think he knew from the beginning he would not. One of his biggest sadnesses was not seeing his grandchildren grow up and the possibility that they would never know him. That will never happen. Even though Rob is not with us his energy and stories continue within all of us and are shared often with laughter and tears.

I met Rob when I started coming to church, he was the young single adult leader and he was great. There was always something happening, if not exciting certainly adventurous and there always seemed to be an element of risk to his activities. Lake Tennyson, for example, where Rob backed a Land Rover into the lake, Penny Mcleod and Aynsley McLeod, (not related to Penny), nearly drowned. We had a lot of fun in YSAs when Rob was in charge. He always had so much energy. Things happened.

Our families have been very close over the years and our children have grown up together. Rob, Viv and their children felt like home for us, like an extension of our own family. We did tramps together, Christmas', birthdays, family dinners, weekends at Lake Lyndon in the middle of winter. Every time we go past Brown's Stream, just outside of  Hamner, we stop to look, our last time there was with Rob. Brown's Stream was a regular stop of spot for a swim if we were with Rob. Our children were more friends than cousins. Each one of them has their own story of Uncle Rob. Now we live in their family home ... the house that Rob built! He loved 29a! We love it too.   

Rob was generous with himself and his means. If Rob had been travelling with us through Asia he would have given to every beggar we have come across. He hated injustice like the demolition of CCNZ and authority, like the Police or Traffic Police (a Cammock gene I think). He loved the outdoors, he loved his children and had pet names for all of them 'Rose Bud' comes to mind. When he was excited about something or extra happy he did this high pitched squeal, like Pete. He enjoyed reading biographies and history books. He and Pete would talk for hours about people or historical events he had read about. He would always support a local business, like a car mechanic, builder or electrician. No matter what time of day or night we arrived at the Auckland airport he was always there to pick us up. He would park his car and come and meet us off the plane. There is something really welcoming about being met off your plane. He would get excited seeing his children go off and do things, like travelling or tramping. I remember one time some of the family were getting ready to go and do a tramp or something and he came up to me and said, 'isn't this exciting?' 

He coached a girls soccer team for Temple View for a couple of years. He really wanted those girls to do well, he was plugging for them. He would talk to us about some of his worries and concerns for them. I think he felt like he was really making a difference in their lives. He was so pleased when he saw them do well. 

These 2 brothers have been the very, very best of friends. Pete misses Rob deeply and the possibility of what they might have done together. Spending long evenings sitting on the deck with Rob at Temple View and chatting as they always did about life, politics and the injustices of the world. They could talk non-stop! Listening to them watch a funny movie together was almost funnier than the movie they were watching. Rob was always Pete's go to person when he needed to talk to someone about something important. His passing has left a huge gap in Pete's life. We are both pretty sure that Rob, (no doubt with Viv or one of the children), would have met up with us at some point on our trip ... that would have been a blast. Rob was always fun to travel with and he would have loved to hear about our adventures. 

I love this photo of Rob & Viv ... I cannot even begin to imagine how much Viv must miss Rob. I don't know how she has done it. How do you pick up your life as a single person after you have spent nearly 40 years with the same person? I have watched Viv over the last four years as she stepped into the place of being 'it', the sole provider, the problem solver, the only parent. I watched as she moved out of the master bedroom and the marital bed to a smaller room and a smaller bed. All outward signs of no Rob. I've watched as she has tried to carry on as normally as possible but there has always been a sense that someone is missing, Rob.

These amazing, charismatic, funny, well read, educated and travelled people are Rob & Viv's legacy to the world. Rob lives on in each of these amazing people in some way. We know they miss him deeply. Time marches on relentlessly, even though in moments like Rob's death we want it to stop, births, deaths and marriages still happen, they would be more complete if Rob was still here. Rob left this world a much loved man and he is missed deeply by all of us.