From Bob Emanuel:
Few would remember Jane Hodson, former OTC tech and TO who spent her two-three years with OTC mainly in Perth.
Her passing was noted in a large but warm obituary in today’s Sydney Morning Herald print edition and online.
The SMH obit mentioned her time in Telecom, where she did her training but not that she joined OTC with another 24 qualified techs in a large batch of recruitment into OTC in the late 1980s when expansion was the name of the game. Wally Sakaluk was in the same intake.
Hoddy and I got on like a house on fire. I’d just been dumped after a long term relationship and wasn’t into another one quickly so we had a ball together. Both of us moved to Perth for the first DMS300 installation in Australia and didn’t we have a ball. She came from Perth, had two girlfriends living there and family and so I got to see a side of WA that few OTC folks would have – some of the best music I’ve ever heard, great bushwalks and picnic spots and a great array of people. I was the only straight guy in that group.
Jane, ever the restless soul, quit and went to Europe and came back after 6 months – we offered her old job back but she wanted to work in television and moved to Darwin, which led to her joining the CLC as described in the obituary. I wrote her only reference for the Darwin job, was contacted by them and helped kick off her media career. I moved back to Paddo and that’s when we lost contact.
I am so glad to see she did so well.
Cheers,
Bob E
1 Comment
From Wally Sakaluk:
Thanks for the link to Jane’s obituary Bob.
I got your earlier email announcing her departure. I was quite shocked and saddened to learn that. Didn’t know what to say.
Jane and I weren’t part of the same “intake”. I joined OTC in 81. When Jane joined OTC it was the late 80s and she ended up working at Oxford Falls which is where I met her and enjoyed working with her and trying to get her head around how the SES worked. I crashed a few times at her tiny flat in Newtown after a night out together somewhere and being incapable of piloting my car back up the Central Coast.
We were however part of the same exodus to Perth.
A fun girl indeed and smart. Had loads of laughs performing “station checks” on night shifts at Gnangara, often consoling her when she’d had yet another falling out with her partner…….”…just because I asked her not to waste her pee and go out and pee on the compost heap…” ……more laughter. Naturally all who visited here at home were obliged to pee on the compost heap. She loved gardening.
Her and her partner gave me a shocking haircut once. Remember that night Bob?
So sad to hear she isn’t with us anymore. One person I’ll never forget.
She made the world better just by being.