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11/17/08 |
    
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"A life filled with experiences and energy she made us all feel good when we knew her." Brony's Life by Noeline Meredith (mother), Allison Kirkwood (eldest sister), Harald Ulriksen (husband) Brony was born in Timaru Hospital on the 5th June 1969. Her parents, John and Noeline Meredith named her Bronwyn Ann. She was the third child born to the family and has an older brother David, an older sister Alison and a younger sister Denise. Brony grew up in Timaru attending Gleniti Primary School and Timaru Girls High School. From an early age, Brony loved to be in the outdoors. Family holidays were spent camping and as she grew up she did a lot of camping and tramping with the Girl Guides where she achieved the Chief Commissioner’s award. Her love of the outdoors continued to grow as she did more and more tramping/hiking around some of NZ’s most beautiful tracks. She loved to be surrounded by the trees, lakes, rivers and mountains, Queenstown was were everything came together for her all the ingredients she needed to live life fully - settle and build her own house. Brony has also always loved the adventure of travel. Traveling as a teenager to Australia and a visit to her sister Alison in Darwin and from there she went on to London. London was a base for some years where she traveled Europe and worked various jobs in between her adventures. Her biggest and most memorable travelling adventure was travelling through Africa in an overland truck with a group of her closest friends. This experience for her was the major highlight and influence on her life it opened new ways of thinking, feeling and viewing the world. She grabbed hold of opportunities and ran with it when others had doubt she had already moved forward.
Dance has always been a major part of Brony’s life. As a young
girl she learned highland dancing and tap dancing, she preferred the fun
aspect of making up fun dances with her friends than the stress of exams
and butterflies of stage performances. Later in life she would fulfill
her passions and dreams of creating a fun and happy environment for
children to experience dance.
Brony was blessed with a gifted and beautiful voice. Her humble nature meant that performing for an audience was rare and memorable. Her time in England was spent developing her talents and there she recorded a demo CD, sang with bands and performed in clubs. When you heard her sing it was as if time stopped and you were transported into her world. An amazing sultry sound she captivated everyone that heard her sing. It is perhaps Brony’s affinity with children that has influenced her pathway through life the most. She managed to retain a wonderful child like quality herself which made her every child’s favourite adult. One of her nieces Anna once summed it up beautifully when trying to describe her “I know Aunty Brony is not a child but she is not like other adults either – she is just really cool!” She has always attracted children to her like moths to a flame and she loved every one of them. It is this very special quality, combined with her dancing and singing talents that enabled her, with the support of close friends, to establish a dance school in Queenstown which she named “The Rhythm Factory” in 1999/2000. The Rhythm Factory was very popular and grew rapidly including expansion into neighbouring towns becoming one of the largest on the South Island at the time. Brony put an enormous amount of love, time and energy into her classes and organizing concerts for the children to perform in as she recalled from her own childhood how much children they loved to dress up and perform. It gave her great joy to see it all come together on the day and to see the excitement on the children’s faces.
It was about this time that Brony learned that she had an aggressive cancer but this did not stop her from continuing to expand her business into the thriving dance school that it is today. Through her positive approach to life and her determination she faced many battles and won, keeping the disease in remission on several occasions. Brony married Harald in 2005, and enjoyed a wonderful around the world honeymoon and many later adventures in Kayaks, bikes and hikes in National parks around Sydney. Working together as a team on all aspects of her life they enjoyed living and working together and Harald was there for her through her highs and lows sharing in the joy and the energy that she lived every aspect of her life with. Her vision was to live life and enjoy each and every moment, she was passionate and determined in every aspect of her life and private about it all always the humble and giving person that would give her last mouthful of water away to someone else if they asked. She was amazing!!!! She had great strength of character, determination, her smile would light up a room, she lived life and created joy everywhere she went and we all loved her dearly. We will miss you everyday.
TRIBUTE Written by Inga Black (bestest friend)
If love could have saved you, You would have lived Forever… How it began……I met Brony at Novotel Queenstown. She was the General Managers PA & I was in Human Resources. Our office overlooked the swimming pool, always a great view in summer ! We sat facing each other from across the office & would pull funny faces at each other when we thought no-one was watching. It was a good giggle to help pass the time (small things eh?)! Every lunch time without fail, we would sneak off to indulge ourselves in a fine can of Wilsons Whiskey down on the lakefront. We would talk about nothing & everything and Brony would dream of one day owning her own dance school for children. This is where Rhythm Factory was born. Little did we know then, that Brony would make it such a success!
Bronys Queenstown home…. Brony & I lived in this house in Panorama Terrace Queenstown, before her own house was built in Gum Lane. It was a pole home that faced south, superb views but in the winter the wind would wrap right around the house and freeze the water pipes ! It would get so cold that the only way to warm up was to dance around the lounge room like lunatics with the dog barking at our heels and spinning around and around like we were ! We would laugh so hard that we would fall down on the floor in stitches ! It worked every time !
Gone
yet not forgotten,
Brony & Kini……. Brony & Kini came into my life at the same time. Aunty Brony was given the nick- name ‘Broondogalie’ & whenever I called her this she would giggle as she knew it was my pet name for her & what it meant to both of us. One day after Brony had left for Sydney & I was in Colorado, my dog-sitter called me on the phone, frantic that Kini had gone missing. All I could do was wait by the phone & pray that she would find her way back home & in the meantime he would look for her. Two agonising days had passed when finally I received a call to say that Kini had been found sitting on the doorstep of Bronys house ! She had spent the last 3 days waiting for Auntie Brony to come back !! Now that’s Puppy love !
Learning to Snowboard….
Brony wanted to learn how to snowboard so I took her up to Coronet peak, but not before warning her that it was pretty hard on your butt !. Brony needed some extra padding in that area, so she stuffed a couch cushion down her pants for good measure ! Brony was proud of her new ‘booty’ & we laughed about it all the way down the slopes ! Brony was doing great traversing down the learners slope when suddenly another snowboarder crossed her path in mid flight & swiped the sharp edge of his board straight across her chin. He stopped to ask if she was alright & Brony, in her usual way said ‘Yes, I’m fine’ & continued down the slope to meet me at the bottom. I asked her how she went and as she opened her mouth to speak, the gash in her chin gaped open dripping blood all over the snow. Sensing her panic at the sight of her own blood, I reassured her that it was only a small cut, but we’d get it looked at by the on-mountain doctor, just in case. I held her hand throughout her surgery - 7 stiches (4 on the inside & 3 on the outside). I knew then, just how brave Brony really was !
The next year we went on a boarding mission to Mount Hutt in Canterbury. We left quite late & decided we’d stop off alongside lake Benmore & sleep in the back of my truck. There wasn’t much room in the back so we placed the snowboards under the truck whilst we slept. Next morning we woke to find 20 Fishermen on either side of the truck, and in our panic to escape before they saw us in our knickers, we reversed out, straight over our snowboards ! Hearing the snap of the boards flexing under the wheels, we presumed the worst & just looked at each other with wide eyes & open mouths - then we broke into fits of laughter at our stupidity…. We laughed all the way to Mount Hutt !
My beautiful Brony….. How honoured I was to have Brony stand up for me at my wedding and be my bridesmaid – she even surprised us all by singing a song whilst we signed the register at the chapel and then again later that night at my wedding reception. She was amazing ! And while the guests cheered and applauded, I was all choked-up with love & admiration for Bronys beautiful voice & her thoughtful gift of song !
Good friends never
say goodbye – they simply say
"See you soon"…
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This site was last updated 11/17/08
