One last chance to catch up with terminally ill Albany character John Aylmore at his ‘living wake’

A larger-than-life character of Albany will be farewelled this weekend but there’s a catch — he is not dead just yet. John Aylmore was born into a multi-generational farming family in Gnowangerup in 1946, and he has filled a range of notable and colourful roles in Albany throughout his life. Mr Aylmore was a butcher at Borthwicks for 15 years, but that was just one of many jobs in his time in Albany. He has worked at the Albany Woollen Mills and spent time as a milkman, chicken farmer and even a ferret breeder. He erected a lot of the wooden fencing in the Albany area and built a couple of boats. Along with his paid work, Mr Aylmore has served as a volunteer firefighter and with the Australian Navy reserves during the Vietnam War. He and his late wife Pat also set up Elite Family Daycare, which his daughter Sonya Aylmore still runs and has helped to expand across the State. According to his daughter Sonya Aylmore, John “just can’t sit still”. “We’re writing his eulogy and we’re going ‘oh my God, seriously Dad, is there anything you didn’t do?’” Ms Aylmore said. After several years of ill health, which began with a stroke five years ago, Mr Aylmore was diagnosed with pancreatic and bile duct cancer four weeks ago. “Within two weeks of the diagnosis, he’d got a hospice care plan, end-of-life care plan, it’s all go,” Sonya said. After the sudden death of his wife Pat in 1999, John decided he did not want the fuss of a funeral. “He’s always said ‘when I die, I want nothing, you just take me to the crematorium, put me in a box next to your mother and that’s it,” Sonya said. The family agreed to his plan of not holding a funeral. But after his diagnosis, and finding out that he only has weeks to live, the family decided to change their plans, while still honouring his wishes. “I said, ‘Right, well here’s the deal Dad, the deal that we made with you was when you were dead’,” Sonya said. “’You’re not dead, but we know you’re going to be dead soon’.” She told her father about her idea of holding a “living wake”, where his relatives and friends could say goodbye to him while he was still there to see them. Initially, he was not keen on the idea, but he came around to it because it would give him one more chance to catch up with old mates and reminisce. “We decided to do it now, one reason is because of the COVID restrictions changing, and also Dad wanted to do it while he could still remember people, and not be in too much pain to not be unable to talk,” Sonya said. Mr Aylmore has two daughters, Sonya and Debra, and five grandchildren — Lavinia, Mabel, Escher, Renoir and Monet. Sonya describes her Dad as “loyal” and “community-focused”, but also an “old school bugger”. “Some people go ‘oh, you’re just a grumpy old bugger’, but he actually isn’t — it’s just that persona that he puts out there, that grumpy old man,” she said. “But he actually does have a heart under there, because you couldn’t maintain friendships for 30, 40, 50 years if you didn’t care.” The “living wake” will be held in a marquee at Haz Beanz Cafe on Saturday, where John is a regular, near the marina where he spent a lot of time as a child. “We’re having it as Haz Beanz because that’s his routine, every Wednesday and Sunday he puts himself at a table,” Sonya said. “He tells everyone that’s where he’s going to be and people just pop down there and they have a coffee, they have a chat, they know that’s where he’s going to be. “If they’re feeling lonely, that’s where they turn up.” Sonya has organised a scrapbook for people to write in for John to take with him to Albany Community Hospice. They don’t know how many people will turn up, but Sonya said old friends and colleagues had been coming out of the woodwork as the word got around. “Because he’s still alive, we wrote on the bottom of the invite ‘PS he will know if you don’t show up’,” Sonya said. If would like to attend, RSVP to Sonya on 0408 415 078.