Vale Caryl Haslem, OAM. May 14 1942 - May 6 2018.
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Caryl and John, known to many as an inseparable couple, met in 1956.
They were school and university sweethearts, married in 1964 and moved to Canberra from Melbourne a year later.
Caryl taught at Canberra High School, and John joined the Department of Trade and Industry.
Like so many others, Caryl discovered the charms of the coast on a visit from Canberra, after their back-fence neighbour asked the Haslems to Lilli Pilli for a Sunday barbecue.
Caryl was mother to three children, born between 1967 and 1971.
She was active in the Womens’ Electoral Lobby, the VIEW Club, school P&Fs, school boards, community fund raising, and founding and overseeing retail food establishments.
She managed residential and commercial investment properties, was a volunteer Guide at the Australian National Gallery, and the inaugural Gallery Foundation director.
From late 1975 to the end of 1980, John was the MP for Canberra and Caryl was a model MPs wife and supporter.
It was a busy, interesting and challenging period, with three young children and businesses to nurture.
Like so many Canberrans, their trips to the coast became a ritual. Circuit and Lilli Pilli Beaches were their family paradises.
After politics, she continued her community activities, particularly for her childrens’ schools at board and ACT representative levels.
The Haslems purchased a block in Lilli Pilli in 1970, and built a cottage in 1983.
Like so many Canberrans, their trips to the coast became a ritual. Circuit and Lilli Pilli Beaches were their family paradises.
Unfortunately, breast cancer struck Caryl in 1989, which she thwarted after surgery and a lengthy recuperation.
She was awarded the Order Of Australia Medal in 1991, for her contribution to education and the arts.
In 1995 Caryl accepted the challenge of establishing a foundation for her old school in Melbourne.
She spent four years as development director of the Heide Museum of Modern Art, for which she attracted major funding.
Exhausted, Caryl agreed to settle at Lilli Pilli in 2000.
Soon after, she was seduced back to Canberra as an advisor to the President of the Senate, and was up and down the Clyde Mountain each week until the President resigned in mid 2002 – a wonderfully interesting job.
Her next adventure was to help John set up a real estate office in Batemans Bay, which grew with the acquisition of offices in Sunshine Bay and Broulee.
Caryl quickly became a top-10 salesperson in NSW for the Ray White organisation.
She was active with the St Cecilia Music Scholarship, the local Liberal Party, her garden, and friends. After the real estate businesses were sold, Caryl and John continued to specialise in sales of prestige and waterfront property.
Unfortunately Caryl’s breast cancer reappeared in early March this year.
After a gallant but impossible fight in Canberra, she left us, exactly 62 years after John and Caryl first saw each other in 1956.
Her funeral was at St John’s Canberra on Friday, May 11 and was conducted by Bishop George Browning and the Reverend Tom Slockee, of Batemans Bay.
She is survived by husband John, children Emma, Ben and Sophie, seven grandsons and one granddaughter, with whom she enjoyed warm affection and fun – especially at Lilli Pilli – over their life together.
Caryl was a vivacious lady whom people warmed to easily.
She will be missed.