Vale Fisky

 A couple of years ago I had a friend request on Facebook from Darrell Fisk. I remembered Fisky from my time in Wangaratta when I played footy at Greta from 1978-1981. Greta was a happy place, I made many friends there, some close, some casual, but it was great for me personally at the time to be involved in such a warm friendly environment. I was of course more than happy to accept Fisky's friend request.

I'm not a frequent poster on FB, but I do check it most days. Fisky was also an occasional poster, but I found him to be of good humour and interesting. A Saint supporter, football evoked a comment from him now and then and I enjoyed picking up on his banter with his mates.

A few weeks back with the Saints starting the year winning everything it occurred to me that I hadn't seen a post from Fisky for a while. It's not unusual for friend's posts not to come up on my feed, so I thought I must have missed his. I searched and looked at his site and saw that along with a birthday wish from me last September, there was one other that had RIP. I messaged Bill O'brien who played at Greta when I did in the 1980 premiership, Bill also being a friend on FB. A few days later Bill answered my question as to Fisky's status, to learn that he died last July. In a very sad accident, he was out cutting firewood with his sons when a tree hit him and killed him.

Fisky was born in 1958 I learned when I googled him and found funeral details. He would have been 63 years old, 6 years 5 months younger than me, so he was in the younger circle at Greta, and we didn't play as teammates in the same team to my recollection. 

It was a shock to learn of his passing by such a means, some nine months after the event. I'm grateful for every day that I lay my head down at night for the safe passage of the day. Random accidents can happen to anyone anytime. I feel for Fisky's family. I'm sorry he didn't get to see the Saints win another flag.