Vale Colin Wright

Colin Wright died, unexpectedly, on Thursday 10 October aged 58.

He had received services from Vivid in Echuca for decades and was very much part of the fabric of this organisation.

Vivid staff  Karen Carpenter with contributions from Ross Hannasky, Anita Henery and Brad Worlley reflect here on Colin’s life and character. 

Colin had a unique sense of humour and a way with words – he didn’t have a big vocabulary but did know when to slot them into conversation.

He liked to be heard and vocalising, loudly, was a feature of his style of communication.

Colin enjoyed having people around him, listening to music and having his chest tapped.

His preferred musical genre was Rock & Roll; Colin loved it – he would have happily listened to it all the time.

Colin knew who he wanted supporting him – and if he didn’t like the staff chances were they would wear his lunch!

He was also known for telling people to “f… off” or calling people “butt holes”; some of that vocabulary was deployed in the direction of Scott Alexander during the CEO’s speech at an AGM one year!

Anita recalls a day out and about when the bus hoist stopped working and they had to get Colin into the bus manually by cranking the lever; he laughed with every crank of the lever.

He thought it was so funny.

Colin had a good understanding of what was happening around him and who he liked to joke with.

Given Colin’s baldness, Brad would often stir Colin telling him he needed a haircut; Colin would respond with a “f… off” and laugh behind his hand.

Rosco recalls Colin’s father lovingly throwing Colin over his shoulder like a bag of potatoes just to get him around many, many years ago.

Some of Colin’s best days were at Rosco’s farm. Staff would load him onto the back of the ute and take him for a drive, all cushioned up of course, and he would laugh and laugh!

Colin loved the old High Street South hydro pool where staff would have him floating on his back and would sway him from side to side.