As the one in the family who used to get paid to write things, I was asked to help put together the eulogy for my grandfather. So I sat down with Nan yesterday to try to get some words out of her. Then tried to fill in the rest with my mum later on. It’s hard to try to sum up an entire life in a few minutes. And talking about it just brings up questions that will never be answered.

My grandfather was a man of few words and I can’t actually ever remember him speaking directly to me, beyond, “G’day, girly!”. But then I do remember lots of walks, up and down the street, and through the paddock, and lots of trips down to his vegetable garden when we visited them after school. Mum was talking yesterday about how he always used companion planting, and that would explain why my garden doesn’t feel complete without marigolds planted in among the vegetables, and why basil always needs to be tucked in next to tomatoes.

There must have been some words there. I can’t remember them. But we have tomatoes, and marigolds, and basil and they will speak for themselves.