Loving nature. Living life. Accepting death.
”What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly ” Richard Bach
Hi there!
Thanks for taking the time to see what’s going on:) It means a lot to us that you’re here.
Here’s a little bit about what the Gumby Legacy is all about. We cover a lot and talk about things that could make you laugh or cry so grab a brew (or a beer) and dive right in.
I’m Bronwen and on the 7th December 2013, my dad, John Brooke suddenly and unexpectedly passed away due to problems with his heart. My little bro Gumby still lived in South Africa and luckily managed to fly out to the UK to say goodbye although dad didn’t wake up to say goodbye back. He then went back to SA where he was loving his life and planning his future while waiting to fly out to his dream job in March 2014.
On the morning of Saturday 22 February 2014, mom and I found out that Gumby (my beautiful baby brother, Jeremy) had been shot and killed during an armed robbery in a remote, peaceful, coastal location in South Africa. We were and still are, devastated. You can read about what happened in this article that my mom has written.
Until you lose someone you love, you can never truly understand the finality of death. This might sound a bit daft if you have yet to experience it yourself but it is truly the most difficult thing to comprehend and impossible to accept.
We, my mom and I, need something good to come from losing Gumby and that is why we’ve set up the Gumby Legacy. It’s been a bit of a work in progress and the focus has shifted a few times and may well continue to change as we get our heads around things a bit more but for now, this is where we’re at.
This is what we write about on the blog:
Loving Nature
Gumby loved and appreciated all things related to nature. Big beasts, tiny creepy crawlies, plants, the sea – you name it, if it was alive and didn’t talk back, he loved it and cared for it!
We think it’s really important for people to be aware of the world around them and to properly take notice of how nature impacts on us and how we impact on it. Teaching kids is fundamental in determining what the next generation’s experience of the ‘wild’ will be so we hope to focus a lot on how you can teach the kids in your life about nature as well as bring you interesting facts and useful hints and tips regarding the wonderful natural world.
Check out all our nature related posts here.
Living Life
You never met a happier, louder, more content person than Gumby. He was just so comfortable in his own skin.
Inspired by this, we want to explore how it’s possible to live life like that. To live simply, fully and happily no matter what life throws at you.
Having 2 kids of my own, I feel the most important job I have is to teach them right from wrong and to help them to grow up to be kind, loving girls who contribute positively to the communities they find themselves in. We hope that we can explore values and beliefs about life and how we and you, can practically teach these to the little people in our lives.
This will take you to all posts about Living Life which includes things to do, make, see and experience.
Accepting Death
Never a comfortable thing to talk about or even think about but something that can and does happen to everyone. Having been through our fair share of loss, we deeply feel for you if you have too and we’re here to listen. We would be honoured if you wrote us a Cloud letter if you feel it will help you to share your story.
We hope that by sharing our story and experiences, we can bring comfort and maybe some relief to others going through similar emotions and experiences.
While it’s difficult to accept the fact that someone you love has died, even harder sometimes to face your own mortality. In a bizarre twist of fate (for want of a better term), Gumby wasn’t scared of dying like so many of us are. While he naturally did not want to die, he wasn’t actually afraid of it and it turns out, he thought and read about it a lot.
One of the poems he lived by was actually about living your life so well that when death does come, you can die knowing that you’ve lived your life as fully and ‘epically’ as you could. Heavy stuff I know but what can you do?
All articles relating to coping with grief and accepting death can be found here.
Projects and Fundraising
We want to keep Gumby’s memory alive and one way we thought we could do this is by writing and sharing our memories and experiences of having him in our lives.
Another way is by supporting or starting projects that reflect his interests and what was important to him. We have been fundraising so far to support children with additional needs access the awesomeness of surfing and have a couple of other ideas that we’ll hopefully get up and running in the not too distant future.
Pop over here to read all about our fundraising for great reasons efforts and the surfing adventure so far.
That’s pretty much it for an intro! Thanks for sticking around. I just have one favour to ask you now please.
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Take care,
Bron & Marian xox