Fr Francis Carey

Mrs Mary Christine Hughes

Charlie McLaren

Tom McKeith

5th May 2010

I regret to inform you that our confrere Fr. Francis Carey died this afternoon at 16.40 hours in Olivedale Clinic in Johannesburg, South Africa. Br Rene Garand had just been to see him less than an hour before. Frank was admitted in the hospital on 7th April 2010 for a bowel obstruction.

He was operated on, on Thursday 8th April 2010 but developed complications after that. He later receive two more operations with little improvement. From yesterday the doctors realised they had done all they could.

Fr. Christopher Chileshe
Provincial of the Southern Africa Province



Frank's funeral mass was held at Thom Kight Mortuary chapel. It was celebrated by Antoon van Kessel (from Lusaka) and the preacher was Piet Verkleij his community member from Ndola. The Merrivale students sung very well at the celebration. Sr. Leen SHJM gave the life story of Frank and she also represented the family.

He is buried at Westpark Cemetery alongside Louis Blondel

A Memorial Mass was held in Dundee on Saturday 6th of November to celebrate the life of Charlie McLaren who died recently in Brisbane Australia. While the event was tinged with sadness it was to celebrate a life lived well.

His wife Jan had written a eulogy and in it she says "he was intelligent, he was modest, he was honest and he was sincere." Those of us who knew Charlie would echo these sentiments.

The mass was concelebrated by Monsignor Hugh McInally and Fr. Pat Shanahan WF
and attended by Charlie? family and friends and included Eric Creaney, Manus Maguire and myself.

Eric had created an album of photographs taken of Charlie at various times at St. Boswells and the Priory which he gave to the family after theceremony and this was very much appreciated by them.

His friend, Pat Rice

EULOGY
by Jan, his wife

CHARLIE Mc LAREN

I welcome you here today and thank you for joining us in our final farewell to Charlie. A husband, father, grandfather, brother, son-in-law, brother-in-law, uncle, Godfather and friend.

I particularly wish to thank Fr Adrian Meaney msc, who came from Sydney to be with us. He was our priest & friend for the 9 years we were in Alice Sprlngs. I also wish to thank Fr John Egan for being with us.

A big welcome to Charlie's family who has travelled from Scotland and to the many others who have travelled great distances to share this day. Welcome.

Thanks go to Jill for producing the Mass booklet and organising the day's proceedings and to Jim for conducting the Poppy Ceremony and organising the piper. Thank you my brother and sister.

Charlie was a man of few words and the readings today will conform to this characteristic of his.

Charles McLaren, the second born son of Charles McLaren and Ann Eliza White was born in Dundee, Scotland, at the height of the Second World War. He grew up as the eldest of 7 girls and 5; the firstborn died a few weeks after birth.

(source : Charlie's family, via Eric Creaney)

Charlie, an altar boy from an early age, would serve Mass every morning at St Joseph's, a church he held very dear to his heart. Miss Flynn taught him for many years and there must have been clashes of personality as one day Miss Flynn stated "You think you are smart, don't you Charlie?" to which he replied in all sincerity and honestly, "Yes Miss Flynn."

It was Miss Flynn who returned money to his mother after he had helped himself to the coal money. He wanted to buy black babies for the Missions.

The missionary spirit was very strong in him and at an early age he joined the White Fathers, or Missionaries of Africa. He spent time in their seminaries in Scotland, England and Northern Ireland but after 7 years decided his life was to take a different direction.

He joined the Royal Air Force in June 1960, spending the first 12 months studying Mandarin and the following 2 years in Hong Kong. The next 14 months he was at home in Dundee for a short time and then at Bletchley Park in England, the home of the Enigma machine ?a very suitable location for him as he too was an enigma.

In August 1964 he joined the Australian Army in London. He spent the first few months at the Army Intelligence Centre in Sydney before attending the School of Languages at Point Cook.

Soon after arriving in Victoria we met. Our first outing was to see a movie and during the news clip the theatre was solemn and in silence as we watched Sir Winston Churchill's body, on a barge, floating majestically down the Thames. It was accompanied by the very stirring music 'The Battle Hymn of the Republic' but we said in unison "John Brown's body lies a-molding in the grave". This was not good as we both laughed. Much tutting and shushing was aimed in our direction, which of course did not help in regaining our composure.!!

We spent 12 months meeting every Saturday before he went back to Hong Kong. I joined him 12 months later where we were married. In 1970 he joined the Commonwealth Public Service where he continued the work, which we were never permitted to discuss!! iscuss!!

Our life together has been very fulfilling, exciting and interesting, producing Lucia, Andrew, Gerard and Gabrielle. Apart from Hong Kong, we have lived in Melbourne, Alice Springs, Canberra, Cairns and now the Sunshine Coast. We were fortunate enough to travel extensively and Charlie utilised his skill of French, German and Italian. His French accent was sensational; Oh Jock I will miss hearing your mellow tones.

He was intelligent, he was modest, he was generous, he was honest, and he was sincere. He loved his religion, he loved his Lotto, he loved his newspapers, he loved crosswords, he loved Scotland and he loved his children and grand children and he was fond of a beer.

He was the love of my life. I will miss you my wee Scotsman; my life will never be the same.

Jan

Vale CHARLES MCLAREN