The 27/12/18 marked Tony’s 1st anniversary, a year that has passed far to quickly.

Many KWRMCC members joined Tony’s partner Elaine, her brother Chris and his family who had travelled from the UK for the anniversary.  Travelling to the site just out of Marysville, flowers and cards were laid at Tony’s Memorial Cross and a little quite time was spent to remember a top bloke, our friend, our mate.

Elaine’s brother Chris joined club members for the ride through Warburton to Marysville, joining up with others who went by car. A lovely summers day greeting everyone, the type of day that Tony would simply say with a big smile “I just love it” in his wonderful English accent.

December 27th arrives 11 hours later in the UK

The Hilton family gathered at Tony’s mum and dad’s house in Tamworth (UK) for his 1st anniversary; Jo and I were privileged to be able to join them. It was lovely to meet other members of Tony’s family that couldn’t make it to Australia one year ago.

We smiled at stories of Tony by his family throughout the afternoon. It was nice to visit Tony’s childhood home back in England and understand the different life he and Elaine had before moving to Australia. Tony’s step daughter Lisa had a lovely idea and purchased silver balloons with LED lights inside them and little message tags. The balloons were filled with helium, messages attached  and released into the night sky, a lovely thought.

In the evening a few of us made our way to the pub where Tony’s old bike club used to meet, the Game Cock Inn. A few of Tony’s old mates were there and Tony’s son Luke did the introductions and a few beers were had….

3/4 mile to Hilton village –
We found it when we took a wrong turn on the way to Tony’s parents home 🙂