More than 200 community members gathered at the Geographe Bay Yacht Club on January 7, 2021 to celebrate the life of Port Geographe resident Kitty Gee who sadly passed away on December 23, 2020.
In the 13 years since moving to Busselton, Kitty attracted hundreds of friends through Mah Jong, school activities, book club, garden club and wine club.
Her mother was from Otago NZ, and her father Ira was a horticulturalist, aspiring to be a landscape architect. He was offered the position of superintendant of the Hobart Botanical Gardens. His commission was to resurrect and re-model the gardens after decades of neglect. Gardening was in Kitty's genes.
Kitty was born in Hobart on April 29, but there is some doubt about which year. Her birth certificate says 1941, whereas all her passports, tax file data, and even Gran's memoirs say 1942. For the first 14 years of her life she lived in the Governor's Precinct adjacent to the Botanical Gardens, where she mixed with dole workers, prisoners on work relief, politicians, Hobart society and Vice Regals.
After 20 years as superintendant, Ira resigned to become a high-profile consultant landscape architect, built a house at Tinderbox, on Northwest Bay.
Kitty's soon to be husband Dennis was in his third year at university, studying chemistry and geology, riding motorbikes, and playing rugby. Dennis' geology and rugby mate Chris Books invited him to a party with a promise of a blind date. He went on his motorbike and met the blind date, took her for a ride on my Norton500 (ES2, single cylinder OHV machine). After a ride up Mt Nelson, Dennis returned his blind date to the party. Then Kitty edged up to Dennis and said "can I have a ride too?"
Kitty and Dennis wed on January 24, 1962. Dennis was assigned to the Mines Department regional base in Wynyard Tasmania, for three years. Here they had the misfortune of a still birth which was attributed to ovarian cancer, with a medical prognosis of not being able to have future children. They took under foster care, and later adopted, an infant girl they called Sherry. She became their first daughter.
In 1965 the Mines Department moved them back to Hobart where Kitty was pleased to rejoin the rugby mothers - one of whom was Etta Donaldson, wife of John Donaldson. Their child was called Mary. Kitty is in a very select group of persons who have changed the nappy of the Princess of Denmark.
Under Ira's hand Kitty and Dennis built a house at Blackmans Bay, just south of Hobart. To their surprise and joy, and against all predictions, Kitty produced two lovely daughters Marion and Meredith. During this time Dennis completed his PhD.
In January 1970 they moved to Kalgoorlie to join the great Nickel Boom. Kitty and Dennis both cherished their time in Kalgoorlie. They claim associate membership of an eclectic fraternity of people that have lived and worked in the mining industry in Kalgoorlie.
Dennis was asked o apply for a senior position at the Geological Survey of WA which brought the Gee family to Perth, where Kitty brought up a family of children - which became four. Kitty found time to go to ECU and obtained a Diploma of Social Studies (Aged Care). She worked with Silver Chain where she encountered advanced AIDS patients. That became her concern and with Government funding she set up and ran an AIDS respite house.
A seminal event in their lives was 1975 when her mother and father expressed a desire to move to WA and moved into their Waldemar house. Her father died at their home in 1985 and her mother lived comfortably for another 12 years in the aptly termed granny-flat.
In 1998, Kitty and Dennis moved to Darwin for four years, where Kitty was engaged by the Northern Territory AIDS Council. Her role was to teach safe-sex to the working girls (and boys) of Darwin.
Sailing played a major part of their life together. Kitty did a lot of off-shore sailing - Albany, Whitsundays, Aegean, Port Davey. Her prime achievement was the Atlantic Crossing. She sailed from Portugal through the Canary Islands to Antigua in the Caribbean.
This time last year Dennis helped sail Third Horizon to Tasmania. In Hobart he was joined by Kitty, Madeleine, Ashton, Meredith, Dean, Zoe and "little" Dennis. They lived aboard the yacht for a month in Margate Marina and enjoyed Christmas and New Year with Kitty's life-long friends.