Cousins Nathan, Shannon,
Phil, Melissa,
Amy and Martin
Cousins Matthew and Ivy
As well as many great Aunts, great Uncles and second
Cousins.
Each miss Tegan dearly and all have fond memories to cherish for
a lifetime.
Some of these memories supplied by the family members are:
Tegan as a baby always had a smile on her face
and was adventurous. When she learnt to crawl she would take off
at great speed and would even then take a bit of catching. One day
she sprinted on all fours around and over obstacles and was followed
to the laundry where she began eating cat biscuits with the family
cat looking on. Of course she looked at her parents with a big cheesy
grin and thought it was hilarious. This sense of humour and athletic
ability grew with Tegan each subsequent year of her life.
Tegan or Teegs as she was more affectionately known
loved life and all it had to offer. Teegs liked family outings and
holidays but of course with the proviso that there was an element
of adrenalin and adventure to it or if she could bring along a friend
or two. She liked going with her grandparent’s to their holiday
house at Mollymook. She enjoyed places like the Gold Coast with
its theme parks, Snorkelling near Bundaberg, Moreton Island where
she experienced quad biking and parasailing and Brisbane where she
did a tandem skydive from 12,000 feet. She enjoyed the experience
so much she couldn’t wipe the smile off her face for several
days and was already planning a second jump.
Teegs was fashion conscious and had to make sure
she was colour coordinated; she even chose her cycling clothing
to match the colour of her bike frame and her football boots to
match the colour of her Woden Valley strip. That was our Teegs.
Teegs loved having her back tickled or massaged
when going to bed by whoever was willing to spend minutes on end
doing so.
Teegs after every sporting event or cycling training session often
told her dad how hungry she was and required to eat immediately
before she fainted!
Teegs had many facial expressions and flapped her
arms when she was excited and boy did she flap those arms!
Teegs was beautiful, both on the inside and out.
She was a happiness machine. Tegan’s radiant smile, sparkling
eyes and contagious laugh were what made her so lovable.
Her sense of humour came from everyday real life happenings. She
told a story with zest, sparkling eyes and a contagious laugh that
was unique.
An example of this was at dinner one Sunday evening with her grandparents.
She told them about a certain Fadden family that morning: Hubby was in the garden pottering around and their little dog
was with him making a pest of himself so hubby tied the dog to the
towbar on the car so he could have some peace gardening. He popped
around the back of the house for a minute and when he returned,
the car was gone. He immediately phoned his wife on the mobile “Darling
did you untie the dog from the car”. “Screech”,
wife jumped out of the car and there was the poor pooch puffing
and panting.
The dog was fine otherwise Tegan would not have found the story
so funny. Everyone laughed all through dinner and even on the way
home. Only Teegs could have told this story so well of course.
Tegan came into the James family as the first granddaughter,
first niece and first cousin. As we know she liked to be first.
We were overjoyed at the arrival of this big beautiful baby girl
with lots of spiky dark hair but we had no idea of the important
person she was to become in our lives.
As she grew so did her personality, her love of life and her appetite.
Her ability to eat us all out of house and home coming in second
only to her cousin Matthew. Grandma would often say to her when
she dropped in after school “Tegan I’m so glad to
see you but my fridge isn’t”.
Tegan had a way of making everyone feel special, whether it was
ringing Jenna in the afternoons while she was working just to ask
her what she was doing or turning up with baby names she approved
of for Verity or dropping in after school for a chat with and snack
from Grandma or getting Granddad to help her with her homework for
hours and hours.
This was Tegan and it was all done with such love, warmth and happiness.
Teegs was a wonderful older sister to Chelsea often
role playing ‘Schools’ or ‘Offices’ with
her when she was bored or teaching her how to play a song on the
trumpet or piano. Such was her caring nature.
Her Queensland cousins would look forward to her
visiting each year as she would always take the lead in finding
things to do either with a game in the garden like ‘hide and
seek’ or inside the house with karaoke which she would record
and playback with great amusement.
Teegs always liked to keep fit even when on holidays
so when in Brisbane, Steve and Joanne would ask her to join them
on a bike ride or a run as part of their Triathlon training. This,
Teegs was keen to do as long as it didn’t require an early
morning start or lots of hills!
Tegan’s Aunty Lynda recalls an incident when her daughter
Melissa was an absolute tomboy.
Melissa spent the day with Tegan, she had left the house in her
usual t-shirt and board shorts. When the car pulled up on arrival
home, out of the car came this stunning model type. It was Melissa.
Tegan had performed one of her makeovers on her. I saw Tegan grinning
from ear to ear from the car as Melissa strutted her stuff. She
was wearing a big hat, huge sunglasses, high heals, short skirt
and lipstick. It all looked rather good but unfortunately the lesson
in walking with high heels had obviously been forgotten. Melissa
slipped and landed on her bottom. The look on Tegan's face was one
of shock and hilarity.
