Sebastian’s Eulogy
27th October 2000 - 11th August 2021
Sebastian Robert Shortis born on the 27th of October 2000. He came into the world the usual way with a scream, that didn’t cease until 20 months old.
As many of you would know Day to day life didn’t come easy to Sebastian, from a young age every time we hit a learning milestone whether it was riding a bike or tying a shoelace, it was something we all celebrated.
After attending St Xavier’s and then St Mary’s Sebastian left school at the beginning of Yr 11 - And so began his search for what he wanted to do. He went onto complete a cert 2 in Agriculture and shearing School at Armidale TAFE.
He spent time working on a property at Walgett – before coming back to Gunnedah and working at Mannion Drilling as a shed hand and later on a drilling rig.
Seb loved his time there – he loved being around people and being part of a team.
After moving to Gunnedah when Sebastian was 5, we took the opportunity to get involved in a lot of different sports and activities. Which Sebastian generally could take it or leave most of the time, but the way we operated it was one in all in.?
Some of our favourite family memories was touring the North West with junior rugby. However, Bassy wasn’t always keen on the rugby, so we thought it only fair to give him a choice… Forwards or Backs he took the forwards and continued to play to until the U16’s.
One day I particularly remember, as we were leaving rugby training Sebastian (who was 8yrs old at the time ) came running over crying, after enquiring what was wrong with tears rolling down his face, he handed me piece of paper & told us his coach had given him homework. Such was Sebastian’s dislike for academics and of course homework.
From an early age Bas loved dogs. His affinity with Kelpies gave him a lot of satisfaction - training, breeding and trialling them And also, some frustration which is usually par for the course training sheep dogs.
He loved his dogs, sometimes we would find him in bed, snuggled up with his favourite pup that he was going to keep from the next litter or spending all night over in the shed with one of the dogs which was about to have pups.
Bas and I covered a lot of kms going to shows and dog trials all over the place which as I look back now is some of that quality time, we take for granted but we did enjoy our road trips.
Sebastian was a classic boy, who provided us with a lot of laughs whether it be his literal interpretation of information or his lack of attention to detail.
One day while in the yards lamb marking. The alpaca was keeping a special eye on Seb, Lachie mentioned to “ be careful he doesn’t spit on you!” as we turned around just in time to see Seb chasing the Alpaca around the yard trying to spit on it.…
He thought he’d get in first.
Or Seb and Nick in charge of pairing all the odd socks, Leisa was so impressed that the basket was finally empty, and all the odd socks paired however, we spent the next 2 weeks putting on odd socks – the boys hadn’t matched them just paired them –
Seb thought that was particularly funny as it didn’t phase him to wear odd socks!!
Sebastian’s unassuming nature and gradual smile allowed him to form lifelong friendships with people from all walks of life. People were always willing to help him out.
It was one such time that I received a call at 11 o’clock on a Friday night to say he had broken down – OK mate where are you…’’I’m at the top of Porky…. (the local lookout)
So I headed into town not really know what my plan was, only to meet with all these young fellows surrounding his car giving their assessment.
After some deliberation and a number of opinions, one of the boys rang another boy whose father had a car trailer.
No sooner had the trailer arrived then they boys had pushed the car onto the trailer, strapped it down and it was on its way out to our place. I knew a few of the faces but not many!
As every parent could relate, teenager’s either seem to be fast asleep or slow awake and Bassy was no different.
One weekend when we were away, Bassy stayed at home as he was working on the drilling rig usually starting at about 6.30 in the morning. So, we thought we should ring and make sure he was up ready for work…
after a number of calls. there was no answer, there was only one thing left to do ring our neighbour Gerald to go and haul Bassy out of bed which he did no problem at all.
Leisa and I were always comforted knowing that Sebastian was surrounded by friends/mentors and people who loved and cared for him.
In the last few months Bassy became a hugger –, Sebastian as a child you had to catch first before you could hug him. Now to put this into perspective Bassy stood at 6’3 and was all arms and legs so when he wrapped his arms around you – whether you were looking in the fridge or just standing idle, it then took a bit to unravel him!!!
We are not sure when or why he suddenly became a hugger, but they will be sorely missed. As any parents of teenagers would know from time to time you need to dish out some tough love. On many of these occasions when the dust had settled. Bassy would come and sidle up beside me and ask
SO, ARE WE STILL MATES?
Which was the UNCONDITIONAL LOVE Bassy had for all of us. And that we had for him
AND BASSY ………. YES, WE ARE STILL MATES AND ALWAYS WILL BE
Take care my gorgeous boy on your new journey
May you R.I.P