Men's group comrade

My family's connection with Andrew started at the local kindy which Harrison and Daniel both attended. Lots of school sport followed that with hours throwing balls at kids in the nets and afternoons in the sun soaking in the tedium of a cricket match. As a father, you need a friend with a good sense of humour to get you through that! Cue Andrew Eckert.
I could talk about the family camping trips and the paraphernalia, all carefully boxed up and labelled, that would come out of the Eckert's vehicle. Or Andrew's quest to win the pizza topping combination competition (he did) on the Mawson Trail trip he organised for the rest of us.
But the story I have that for me epitomises Andrew's gift to us all is his role as comrade in a recently formed men's group - Andrew, Stephen, Peter and me. This men's group was so much fun, something I looked forward to every month. We could flip from serious to banter to laugh out loud fumy in the space of a sentence. You can imagine, Andrew was in his element. Stephen,ever the process geek, developed a standing meeting agenda to discuss perennial men's issues - sport, politics, sport, technology, women, sport etc. Andrew strategically reminded us that the last person to arrive should be appointed minute taker. Andrew was never last.
Then Andrew pointed out, with his deadpan straight face, that there was no agenda item for us to talk about our feelings. Laughter all round. So there's is an insight into Andrew. A gregarious, socially connected man, who used humour as glue to keep people connected . And the thing is, he DID want us to talk about our feelings. He got that. And he was good at it too.
I will miss you Andrew, and I thank you for reaching out to me with that special skill you had.

To Sally, Rachel, and Harrison, hold on, hold onto each other, you've go this. Andrew has forever shaped who you are. He'll never really be gone from your lives.