sadsacnews2014: SPECIAL: ( Alfred) Norm Avage 13/5/35

While Norm has only been an occasional club rider over the last few years he has had a significant relationship with Sadsacs over the last nine or so years.
Today (Thursday 11th) a memorial service was held at the Briagalong Mechanics Hall. There was expected to be around 150-200 people in attendance, although I suspect that number was exceeded.
The service was mainly conducted by the funeral director that Norm's daughter-in-law works with and he did a great job of conveying the thoughts of Isabel and family. The hall was decked out with Norm's bike taking pride of place on the stage. It appeared to be none the worse from the accident. There was also a photo of Norm with the group on a recent (about 3 years ago) Ride for Sight.
As well as the words from the Director Sportif, Norm's sons, Garry and Ian, gave a first hand account of their life with Norm. Then Norm's oldest grand daughter and grand son read out a poem they had written about "Normie". It was then the turn of good friends Keith and Bill(burger) to give their impressions of the last nine years. The group was then presented with a slide show that covered somewhat more of Norm's life. There was even shots of a tubby Norm, hard to believe. Despite all the speakers concentrating on the positive side of Norm's life, and that was substantial, you still were very much aware that he had, on his last day, just ridden 80 km at a solid pace. He did not seem quite ready to be laid out by most measures. At the conclusion the guests were treated to a spread that Norm would have been sorry to miss out on.
As I have mainly taken photos of Sadsac rides during the last few years these images were the best I could do. The last photo is of the Norm Remembrance Ride yesterday that included son Ian and nephews Randal and Les with wife Heather.