Time and Tide with John Elsegood FROM FALLEN ARCHES TO GOLDEN ONES

FROM FALLEN ARCHES TO GOLDEN ONES

Valda Stanton, in her role as a physiotherapist, once treated a circus camel.

Whether it was then flexible enough to go through the eye of a needle is not recorded.

Along the way she treated a variety of creatures ranging from humans, racehorses, dogs and others of God's creatures.

We said goodbye to Valda (aged 79) on December 21 on a beautiful golden summer's day at Pinnaroo.

My association with Valda and her husband Bruce came in 2007-8; they were regulars at the Northam races and members, as was I –until Bruce was disgracefully expelled from that club last year (see Oz Racing story, Killing the Messenger, 9/9/11).

I last saw Valda on a rare sojourn to Northam for the opening race meeting of 2011. She was clearly battling, both physically and mentally, since I had last seen her, late in 2008. The sparkle and vibrancy, of that earlier association, had left her but her love of racing had not.

Thus it was great to hear the stories of her at her peak for she was one of those people that lived life to the full, across the continent.

She shared a passion with Bruce that not only produced seven sons but also a love of athletics-she was a good 100m sprinter and Bruce was a successful coach at MLC (Methodist Ladies College) during his teaching years at the all-girls college.

Did the fallen arches that put paid to her athletic career trigger off her desire to study the human body, it ailments and potential cures at university?

She loved academia and it was where she met Bruce, then a chemistry student.

Courtship and marriage in Queensland was followed by a move to WA and growing a family.

Greenbushes, Manjimup, Capel and Bunbury were all areas she worked in before they moved to Perth to settle in the beach suburb of Trigg.

It is amazing the things you find out and the people you rediscover at funerals. Valda became good friends with Ray Young MLA (now deceased) whose office was adjacent to her Doubleview physio practice.

In 1971 this writer (ALP), Ray Young(Liberal) and Brian Peachey (DLP) were contestants for the seat of Wembley in the 1971 State Election (the seat was later renamed Scarborough). Young won the traditional Liberal seat and eventually became Health minister in Sir Charles Court's government.

Valda also treated State and Scarborough cricketer Mick Malone who played one memorable test for Australia at The Oval, succeeding with bat and ball, before joining the Packer Circus.

I remember, as a young opening batsman-keeper playing for North Perth, facing Mick and making 49 on a wretched wicket at Abbett Park, in a WACA second grade cricket match.

As for the officiating minister at the funeral, Rev. Brian Thornber, he was an old Rostrum buddy from my early days in Merredin, in the 1971-5 period. I had only seen him once since, circa 1976, at a Dianella Rostrum Club meeting. He and Bruce had been long-serving colleagues at MLC.

It is a very small world, at times.

Vanda's love of athletics carried over to her working life and she also was involved in State athletics administration and managed many international teams to various Asian places.

In the late 1980s, during a European sweep with the Australian team, she was asked to treat the British 800m champion, Steve Ovett.

Valda had a wicked sense of humour too, as fellow physio, and 'eighth son,' Cameron Neilson revealed at the funeral.

One elderly gentleman once referred to her as Madam Stanton. A big mistake. On his next visit he arrived to a sign on the door that said 'Madam Stanton's Massage Parlour –old crocks persevered with.' When he entered Valda was dressed as a tart!

Some people decide on a sea change later in life. But Bruce and Valda had already done that so for them it was tree change – a 17 acre farmlet outside of Northam at Southern Brook.

Valda worked on humans and animals in her new location, including nearby Goomalling, up to just a few years ago when failing health prevented her continuing.

She and Bruce loved going to the Northam Races but Bruce's principled stand saw him denied continued membership after the AGM of December 2009.

It was disgraceful treatment by a petty-minded committee who clearly like running the club as their fiefdom.

As funerals go this was an upbeat one. It was a celebration of a life well lived and enjoyed. Valda fulfilled, in her life, her oft-repeated message to her sons: find a job you love and you will never work a day in your life.

Physical limitations may have stopped a promising athletic career but it didn't stop her involvement in athletics, or life in general.

From being limited by fallen arches she now moves effortlessly through golden arches.

Such is the promise for believers.

RIP Valda