Tribute from Vicki Nathan

Tribute from Vicki Nathan (David’s cousin)

Hi everyone,

I’m sitting here in TA, after just finishing preparing my brisket for Friday night, and thinking

of you all…..and imagining how David would have been woofing in the aroma were he here

today….be it brisket in TA, or Meatballs and Rice pudding in Caulfied, (I’m guessing)

where would we all be without the “Marys” of this world who come to our rescue with comfort for the soul and stomach, and the “Davids”, who despite their size and physical weakness choose to fight as hard as they can, rather than give in.

When we were kids growing up, playing cowboys and Indians, David never really wanted to

play…he preferred staying upstairs in the kitchen at Balwyn, making tea and scones, watching and laughing at us all from the window through the rose bushes….who would have imagined he would end up fighting so hard just for one more day…one more night, if only to be in his kitchen…..or in his garden, just to be there….

He’s gone now, but it doesn’t seem that he is…I can’t quite grasp it, and he is swirling in my head….in fact he feels more alive than ever, looking down at us, criticizing whether we did caramelize, didn’t caramelize, remarking that the plate isn’t warm enough, or the shallots not quite in season….his fickleness so much a part of his personality, that sometimes, all we want to tell him is David, just shut up and let’s eat.

Yep, like so many other things he did, his heart and soul was in every granule of everything he did, and his personality permeated it, like gravy to meat.

We will all miss him, especially in Balwyn, and Richmond and Olinda…all those places where kitchen was his home, and home his kitchen, and like the genie in the bottle, there will always be a place for him at your family dinners when he pops up out of nowhere…because that’s what he gave you….in his mother’s absence, that wonderful warm feeling of sitting around the dinner table en famille that feels right, good, and home. And boy did he love Melbourne, and did he love home. So I’m grateful to whomever, that his last moments were at home, and that his memory will continue to live on in your homes forever…

Titled “Death of David Bloom” a graveside service celebrating your life, at the Springvale Botanical Cemetery Princes Hwy, Jewish Memorial Garden 1 Row CU Grave 13 on February 14th, Valentine’s Day, from a very fragile Ross, just about said it all. 

What more can one say…our tributes are pale compared to that… the fight you have endured, the life you relished and embraced, cut short by nothing but an unlucky number, and the exemplary commitment and devotion your loving partner Ross showed you in this horrendous struggle to fight the inevitable.

You fought like a Prince, and Princes Hwy you shall travel forever in our memories. You celebrated life with a passion for all that was aesthetic, musical, and tasteful, savoring details and appreciating refinement in everything around you. Even if you couldn’t afford something you relished in its beauty and perfection, be it a piano, a piece of furniture, a piece of equipment that worked well, a sonata played just the way it should be played. David, you were such a man of letters, in your own simple, eccentric style, and your love for those you cared about was so apparent that you could never hold it in; it gushed and oozed from you from every corner of your being…your love of friends, and good food, and French culture and language, and the Harpsichord, and French polish, your mother’s old Kenwood transformed into sculpture, and shallots, and chocolates, and chestnuts, and hard boiled eggs not too well cooked on the salad darling you used to say…and lunch in the garden and scones in the afternoon….you always liked things just so, as they should be….and even though I can’t be here with you today, I know that things will be just so, and as they should be, and how you wanted to say your last good-bye.

We will always remember you, love you, and never forget your boundless generosity of heart. After your first visit to Israel you were so upset by my inadequate kitchen equipment that after returning to Melbourne you sent me a huge box of the most exquisite French baking pans and accessories that money could buy…I still have them all…even the strawberry plucker…and the little china Dutch shoes that you brought the girls from Holland…everything you did David was always imbued with thought and meaningful intention down to the last detail… I just wish we would have had many more years and time to grow old together…but I have to count my blessings… I’m grateful for the childhood memories we shared, we had a beautiful childhood together, in Balwyn, Frankston, and Brighton, your two visits to Israel, and our two recent visits with you and Ross in Olinda, to feel and know the life that you had grown to love. But mostly to have been loved by you too….

David, you are at home now, your final resting place, in a Botanical garden close to the soil, close to your parents, ….sleeping peacefully, and no longer tied in that straight jacket of anger and pain. Nearby are the many friends and neighbors who were a part of journeys ago. May your soul rest in peace knowing that you lived the life you were given as best as you could, you loved and were loved by many, and you will always be in our hearts and our homes forever.

Ecclesiastes 3

For everything there is a season, a time for every experience under heaven:
A time to be born and a time to die,
A time to plant and a time to uproot what is planted,
A time to tear down and a time to build up,
A time to weep and a time to laugh,
A time to grieve and a time to dance,
A time to throw stones and a time to gather stones,
A time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
A time to seek and a time to lose,
A time to keep and a time to discard,
A time to tear and a time to sew,

A time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
 A time to love, and a time to hate;
A time for war, and a time for peace.

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