Cup of concrete toasts memory of dad's one-liners

THE awesome sense of humor of the late Glenn Prior, of Thornlands, overflowed into the "In Memoriam" notice his family placed to mark the first anniversary of his death.
"We’ve all had our cup of concrete but we all still miss you heaps," the notice proclaimed.
Brendon, one of Glenn’s two sons, said the reference to concrete stemmed from one of his dad’s favourite sayings.
"Dad was full of one-liners like ‘busy as a one-legged tap dancer’ or whatever – they just came out to suit the situation," Brendon said.
"But his favourite was to offer any whingers a cup of concrete and he had an add-on that we weren’t game to put in the paper."
The five words in the ‘add-on’ must remain a family secret but Glenn Prior obviously didn’t tolerate any bull….

BRENDON, 38, said his dad had been born at Monto and had grown up at Maryborough and Toowoomba, serving an apprenticeship as a panel beater, spending about a decade in the Royal Australian Air Force and finally settling for a new career in the finance industry.
In 1974, the Priors were in Darwin when Cyclone Tracy hit.
The family – Glenn, his wife Pat, their sons Brendon and Lee, their daughter Karen and all the extended family -- settled in Thornlands from 2000 on returning Queensland after more than a decade in Sydney.
Glenn Prior, who was a grandfather of six, had been most recently known as an LJ Hooker Financial Services franchise owner, Brendon said.
Brendon followed in father’s financial footsteps and is now the State manager of the Westpac Broker Unit.
The diagnosis of cancer in April 2007 might have been linked with Glenn’s ingestion of arsenic during his RAAF service in Vietnam and Cambodia, the son said.

"HE had a particular type of cancer caused by arsenic -- we don’t know for sure but apparently there was arsenic in benzene that was in the water supply (during Glenn’s overseas service)," Brendon said.
Pat said her husband had wanted only two things after the grim diagnosis -- to celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary and the next Anzac Day.
Glenn died at home on April 27, 2008, only weeks from his 58th birthday on May 18. Brendon said the mourners were "10 deep’ during his dad’s Mount Cotton funeral service last year.
"We were best mates and I was just so proud to be his son," Brendon said.

THANKS for joining me to meet the great people in the marvellous community of classified advertising. This column has appeared in The Redland Times, a Fairfax Media newspaper.