Wairarapa’s locally owned community newspaper
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 26, 2020
INSIDE: Celebration of cultures P6
Red on the rocks P4 ARE YOU A VIP CUSTOMER? Read ‘Garden Yarn’ on Page 9 to find out if you’re one of our winners
2 x $25 GARDENBARN VOUCHERS TO BE WON EACH DAY
FLAIR
Peter & Jenny Giddens 24 hour personal service to all districts
Phone: 06 3797616 Carterton www.richmondfuneralhome.co.nz Personalised funerals, based Traditional Values Personalised funerals based onon traditional diti di tionall values al l es
FOR ALL YOUR FLOORING NEEDS See our advert in Wairarapa Property 97-101 High St North, Carterton Ph 06 379 4055
Comrades in arms Lisa Urbani Masterton caterer Tweet Bird and Morrie Edwards didn’t serve together in the army – Tweet being in Victor 5 Company and Morrie in Victor 4 Company – but they “share a common bond” – both of them served in Vietnam. Having already lost another friend, Ian MacLennan, to motor neuron disease [MND], when Tweet heard that Morrie had also been diagnosed with it, he wanted to do something in support of Motor Neuron Disease New Zealand. Information gleaned from their website reveals that MND affects the motor neurons, or nerve cells which control the voluntary movement of muscles. It impacts the muscles for swallowing, chewing, tongue movement, facial expression, breathing, coughing, and limb movement, and degeneration of the motor neurons results in progressive muscle wasting and weakness, because the nerve supply to the muscles is impaired. More than 400 New Zealanders are living with MND, and we have the highest rate in the world. These sobering facts were presented to 73-year old Morrie and his wife and daughter about two months ago when he was diagnosed following four and a
half hours of tests, conducted by a neurologist. When he experienced weakness in his limbs while driving, and then later in his arm last November, doctors at first thought he might have had a stroke. While his wife and daughter were upset to hear his diagnosis, stoic Morrie only responded with, “sh** happens”. He had done his mechanic’s apprenticeship and worked on his father’s dairy farm for a year, when he volunteered to join the army in 1968, at the age of 21, and stayed for three years. Describing the difficult conditions, the hot, dry, and wet weather, tents, mosquitoes, the everpresent threat of Viet Cong in the jungle, Morrie says, modestly, “we were resilient soldiers”. Both he and Tweet knew the sadness of losing men in their companies. Tweet lost four, and Morrie lost seven – one on the very same day he was helicoptered in. For Tweet, it was a matter of “being soldiers who swore allegiance to our Tweet Bird, Bevan [Bev], Darren (Daz) and Richard (Richie), front row, Morrie Edwards and Lass the Labradoodle. PHOTO/LISA URBANI
Continued on page 4
Kia.co.nz
ALL NEW SMALL SUV
LX 2.0 PETROL
MRP
MRP
2019
$27,990 +ORC
+ includes 3 yr /45,000km FREE servicing not applicable on lx model
$27,990
2.0L SX HATCH +ORC*
2019
Features include:
•2.0 Petrol IVT •16” alloys •Autonomous Emergency Braking with car and pedestrian detection •Lane Keep Assist System •Driver Attention Alert •Drive mode select - Normal, Eco, Sport •Cruise Control •8” colour LCD touchscreen audio •Rear parking sensors •Rearview camera with dynamic guidelines •Apple CarPlay™ & Android Auto™
Eastwood Motor Group Limited | 0800 104 103 | www.eastwoodmotorgroup.co.nz
RRP $30,590 + ORC
SPECIAL PRICE
$25,990 +ORC
+ includes 3 yr/45,000 km free servicing For a limited time