Dad

 Note - This post is a bit personal and mainly for Steve and I. It has been hard to write and I am still at odds with myself about what or why to post.

My Dad, Robert George Hoswell, passed away on the 19th of April 2023. 

Steve and I were able to spend quite a bit of time with him by his bedside over the last two months. For this I am eternally grateful to work for giving me all the time off that I needed and to my family for doing the same as well as being there for me.

Orange, NSW with his father, Gordon and mother, Blanch ~1942

Dad was born in 1940 and grew up in a small country town in central New South Wales. He left school at 14 years of age, as many did in the day, and worked hard all of his life. As a mechanic he WAS the guy they got the idea from for the shirt that says “ I fix stuff and I know things”. He was an old school mechanic who could look at a problem and come up with a fix to get the show on the road, working with almost nothing. We had a vague awareness but the stories that have come out about Dad helping people out who were in a pickle, back in the ‘50s and ‘60s, have been heart warming and sometimes eye opening! They certainly make us feel proud.

Marrying Mum, Forbes NSW, 1969.

Dad loved his fishing, shooting and camping which he did much of before marriage and kids slowly put a stop to that.

Mum and Dad - sometime in the '80s.

Myself, Steve and Dad ~ 1980

Dad fostered my interest in flying by supporting me into radio control model flying when I was a teenager. He built a model, paid $699 in 1983 dollars for a radio control set!! and drove me to flying lessons 40 kilometres from home. After I learned to fly Dad joined me in learning to fly himself. Not a bad effort at all in his mid forties. He went on to build and fly many more model aircraft over the years.

Dad with his much loved Sig “Kadet” in our sheep paddock airfield ~ 1985.

My interest in aviation continued as I went on to learn to fly gliders, then powered aircraft and while Dad wasn’t directly involved in that, he was the bedrock that provided the family with a solid foundation that saw we never wanted for anything.

Once I moved to Western Australia for work I bought my first motorcycle. Dad (and Mum) hated bikes but respected my choice (I think)(and later Steve’s) and helped us with our bikes whenever we asked, no questions asked.

Myself, Mum and Dad - January 1991 with that first bike..

Dad and I, March 1992. Bike number 2 about to head back to Western Australia.

I can still remember vividly Dad teaching me to use a dial gauge to set the points on my T250 post classic racer. He also spent hours with me trying to fit badly aligned header pipes to my ZZR600, which also sticks vividly in my memory. Then there was the time he used the crowbar to straighten the rear sub frame on Steve's CBR600 after he crashed it at a track day at Eastern Creek. No, Dad might not have liked bikes but he always helped us, no questions asked. 😞

During his retirement Dad turned his hand to restoring old bicycles and motors that he had been holding on to for decades. Of course, they were amazing because he knew those old motors inside and out.

But the thing he loved most during retirement were his grandchildren. Lucy, Will, Georgia and Olivia were the light of his life and I am so glad he got to spend so much time with them, despite the vast distance that separated us.

Dad and Lucy in 2004.

Dad, Lucy and Will ~ 2005

Dad with Will ~ 2006

Dad and Lucy ~ 2012.

Dad and Will ~ 2015

Olivia, Dad and Georgia in 2021.

Dad and Will 2021.

Will, Dad and I, July 2022.

Dad (and of course Mum) were great role models for both Steve and I. They worked hard, they lived their lives with discipline, honesty and integrity, traits that I think (and hope) has been ingrained in both of us. 

Over the last few months I find myself going to pick up the phone to call him to see how he is, then remembering.....

Dad 2022

Rest easy Dad. You have certainly earned it.

But shit, we are going to miss you. 😢