On Thursday, 24 May, 2012, I attended the funeral of George Edwin Patrick Moran in Hastings.

I first met George, and his wife Nellie in 2006, when I was researching my book From Disaster to Recovery: The Hastings CBD 1931-35.

On the day of the earthquake, 3 February, 1931, George was working at a fish stand in Heretaunga Street West -  opposite where Tourist Kelt Motors used to be.  Like many survivors, 17 year old George could tell me what happened to him as if it was yesterday. And also like many survivors, he had before and after photos of his work premises.  After telling a customer there was no fish (due to rough seas) he walked outside the shop. The earthquake then struck. George recalled how he saw the window of the next door premises bend and then break - shattering glass everywhere. George had seen that window bend before - during the 1929 Murchison Earthquake - but the window did not break then.

While George escaped with his life, he did lose his job - but picked up work clearing the rubble from the Hastings CBD for past mayor, and property owner, George Ebbett.

Nights were spent sleeping in a tent, and he can recall that every morning for weeks a 4am wake-up earthquake occurred, and dislodged bricks from the nearby Municipal Theatre. 

George had a life-long love of brass band music, and told me after the quake the band was asked to put on a concert to help boost morale.  One night at practice, the band leader raised the baton, and as he brought it down - a large aftershock occurred - causing the band members to jump up in fright!

After the earthquake rubble clearing had finished, George, by his own efforts, found work on an orchard. Starting at the bottom, this led to a life-long involvement in horticulture, finally retiring in his 70s - after being called back twice from retirement to the New Zealand Apple and Pear Board.

George would serve in World War II in Norfolk Island, after marrying Nellie in 1941. Nellie had spied George through the window at band practice, and George seeing Nellie and her cousin peering through the window ran out to meet her - beating the others boys in the process. They celebrated 70 years of marriage last year in August, 2011.

At the funeral I reflected on the passing of a man, who not only was to me like a grandfather, but also what I understand to be the last male survivor to pass away who worked in Hastings during the 1931 Hawke's Bay Earthquake. 

Normally at such funerals - were one has lived to 99, we can console each other with "he had lived a full life" - which in some way is supposed to lessen the impact of the loss. To me it did not have this effect, as I thought of Nellie who had been with George for nearly over 70 years, and her sense of bereavement, along with their only daughter. George's younger brother, Jim - a sprightly 96 years of age, I understand - gave a dedication, and was a pall bearer to his older brother. His loss too, was great.

I spend a lot of time with the elderly people of Hastings, and I love every minute of it as they recall their tales of our history.  Their generation is different - although they have suffered more through disasters, depressions and wars than any other New Zealand generation - they have an innocence and trust about them, not present in this cynical age.

Rapidly we are losing the George Moran's of this world, and with it many fine characteristics we would do well to practice today. 

RIP my friend, George.