Christine Stewart's recap of the service in PNG

Christine Stewart sent this description of the memorial held in Port Moresby last month:

I first met Carol Jenkins in 1992, at a meeting of the National AIDS Committee in Port Moresby, when Carol was only just beginning her work in HIV research and intervention design. Even after we both left employment in PNG, we kept up the contact. When Carol’s cancer was first diagnosed as fatal in 2005, I went to Bangkok to visit her, and then in January, when news arrived that the end was close, I returned to Bangkok to say goodbye, and I was there for the death and the funeral.

While in Bangkok, I prepared the shipment of much of Carol's extensive PNG library for consignment to the Australian National University where it will become the Carol Jenkins Memorial Collection. After days and days of sorting all those books and documents, searching the ANU library catalogue for absolutely every title to avoid duplication, we got the ANU consignment packed and shipped the day before I left, 39 boxes in all, definitely going by sea. I flew back to Canberra arriving on 6th February, and then flew out Friday to the memorial service in Port Moresby on 10th. As soon as I had heard about the service in Bangkok, I felt that I should go, and Aaron was delighted when I mentioned it, he was unable to make it himself, and was hoping someone from Bangkok would go.

So I 'carried the talk' and read out Aaron’s eulogy, as well as tossing in a word or two of my own. The service was lovely, about 50 people gathered in the Botanical Gardens on the University campus, on a cool cloudy afternoon so not too hot. Carol’s favourite jazz music was playing, Lady Roslyn Morauta was compère, and speeches were given by Dame Carol Kidu MP, Minister for Community Development, and many friends, colleagues and representatives of organisations Carol had worked for and with, including A man from the Hagahai, to whom I presented a huge bag of Carol's clothes to take back to his homeland.

I thought that I was doing this because there should be some sort of link between the funeral in Bangkok and the service in PNG, where Carol had lived and worked for so many years. But when I got to Moresby, I realised that I was doing it for myself too. For me, it was closure, and in many ways, far more real than the funeral. PNG is a home to my, and I have always understood why to Carol, it was her first love. So I'm so glad I went.
Christine Stewart