Fine weather provides apt farewell at funeral

By BIGA LEBASI
(freelance journalist)
Nature provided peaceful weather on Saturday for Thelma Isabel Guise’s funeral service and burial.
The fine weather befitted the character of Guise, who is the sister of retired Milne Bay dive expert Dinah Halstead now based in Cairns, Australia.
Another sister, Ellen Byrnes, had also flown in from Melbourne, Australia, to join family and friends mourn and bury their loved one.
Lyle O’Connor managed his emotions quite well as he read what he had described as “my eulogy from my heart for my loving and caring sister Thelma”.
In a tiny Anglican chapel shaded by tropical foliage, the service proceeded in a peaceful environment adding poignancy to the sad event.
Outside, nature was pouring imaginary oil on the waters of Milne Bay, recalling for me a classic Suau song written by the late Papuan musician/lyricist/poet and my cousin Simiona aka Simon Andrew of now defunct Kwato Mission.
You could hear a pin drop in the peaceful atmosphere only interrupted by starlings and kanagala (parrots), and the continuous shrill of didila (cicadas).
O’Connor told the service of Guise’s unconditional love for her family, friends and country.
Guise was buried after the final rites performed by Anglican priests Rev Wallace Tiriwa and Rev Phineas Biniki.
The Guise dynasty was initiated by English adventurer and trader Reginald Guise, who married a women from Dogura in the 1850s.