Tony Knight's Wake - February 19, 2011

A Eulogy for Tony

Written by his sister Samantha Jefferson and read at Tony's funeral.

They say “that a life lived in fear, is a life half lived”…well no one could accuse Tony Knight of having lived half a life, even though he was taken from us perhaps a little too soon.

Tony definitely did not live his life in fear. He didn’t live an average life. He didn’t live with many regrets and he did not live life by half.

He was born on the 8th of August 1961 and left us on the 8th February 2011.

His father, Jim, will describe him as one of the ‘toughest blokes you’d ever meet!’ and I’m sure he wouldn’t have a problem bending your ear with the yarn about when Tony was hit by a car as a youngster and lived to tell the tale.

Depending on the company and the number of drinks consumed, the car was travelling anywhere between 20 and 70 miles an hour when it struck him. Again, depending on how late in the day it is and how many empty bottles lay near, Tony was flung somewhere between 3 and 15 metres into the air bearing only a cut ear lobe from the impact. Tony also shared his father’s flexible hold on the truth….it should never get in the way of a good story!

Tony had his share of heartache and hard lessons as a young man but found his true calling at sea. He told his brother in law Chris on his last trip to Thailand in December that if he had to go, he wanted to die at sea.

Tony literally sailed the seven seas. He visited hundreds of international harbours in his travels, made friends in all corners of the world and rumour has it he may have picked a few fights along the way too.

While writing letters wasn’t really his style, news of his whereabouts was often scarce to say the least, but we know that his brother and mate Robert was never far from his thoughts, nor was his mother Betty or Grandmother Molly.

He found his heart’s home in Phuket and welcomed two gorgeous twin girls into the world, Nit and Noi. He found love with a girl named Ming and built a beautiful life for himself in Ao Chalong (Ow Cha-long) where he welcomed Raymond, his son into the world.

While poor health bought him back to Australia and he was able to share the joy of bringing Elizabeth his fourth child into the world. His other love, motorcycles, kept him busy in the shed as he worked to restore his pride and joy. Sadly, it was his love for a life lived to the full that took him from us. The injuries he sustained from a motorcycle accident he had on Saturday the 5th where too much for his damaged body to recover from and we lost him last Tuesday.

He leaves behind his beautiful wife Ming, 5 month old Elizabeth, Siripan, Siriwan and Raymond. He leaves behind his mother Betty, father Athol, brother Robert, sisters Kim, Sam and Lisa and extended family members and friends all over the world.

He didn’t go out with whimper. He went out, all cylinders firing, with a cloud of dust behind him and slid to the finish line having used up every last ounce of life he had left in him. That’s a life lived to the full.