Barry | The Wood, Nelson

“I was born in a little town in Hawke’s Bay called Waipukurau, and I’ve got six siblings. Our parents brought us up really well. We all used to go hunting and fishing together and that was really nice, I think it made us chill.

It was fantastic being brought up. I’m 63 now, and most of our brothers, you know, we’re 18 months difference between my oldest brother and me, and the next one down, and we used to do everything together, and it was fantastic. It’s the memories and because we were all brought up in the same sort of age group. It’s just really fantastic, and a lot of people haven’t got that nowadays. Not that close connection, and I feel sorry for people that haven’t got that close connection. 

I looked after Mum basically until she died. I’ve had bits and pieces of jobs. After the last 12 months, I’ve looked after Mum and I found one when she passed.

She was in Nelson. She just went to bed one night and I found her, and I handled it well. Probably better than the rest of my family could have handled it. But I haven’t really done a hell of a lot. The most important thing to me is family, and love. I think it helps connect people. Makes people a lot stronger. Our family, we are so, so connected, and so what happens to one happens to everyone, and so it makes us a big fist, if people can understand what I mean by a fist. Family is so bloody important. Love is so important. We’ve got a lot of love, and it’s because of our family, because we are siblings, and our ages are very similar, it’s just made us really strong. Made us a really strong family.”