A unique and fitting funeral service was held on Friday as around 30 local dogs formed a guard of honour for local identity, Deborah Duncan’s, final journey at St Bartholomew’s Church at Windellama.
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Deborah Duncan, 46, was the driving inspiration behind Wagging Tails Rural Retreat boarding kennel at Reidsdale, which she ran with husband Glenn. Around 10 years ago Deborah began to show the symptoms of Alzheimers Disease, highly uncommon in someone so young but a rare genetic condition in her case.
Mourners at her funeral heard that Deborah had always loved nature and the outdoors and had always had a special affinity for dogs. Her dream had always been to live in the country and own a boarding kennel. In 2015 she and Glenn made that dream a reality when Wagging Tails opened for its first boarders.
Deborah grew up in Carlingford in Sydney, attending Carlingford High. From childhood she loved outdoor sports, particularly water skiing on the Hawkesbury and horse riding.
After leaving school Deborah entered corporate life in the stationery industry as a buyer in Viking Office Products, then a buyer for WC Penfolds. She become the National Senior Buyer for Metcash, the suppliers for IGA. After moving out to Reidsdale she continued to hold down corporate positions as contracts manager for ACTEW AGL and buyer for Supabarn, before finally pulling the plug on corporate life to fulfill her dream of working with dogs.
The tiny stone St Bartholomew’s church at Windellama was where Deb and Glenn were married 16 years ago. The church had family significance as Deborah was a 5th generation direct descendant of Richard Cartwright, a patriarch of one of the original pioneering families of the district and who was responsible for the building of the church in 1859.
Glenn obtained the approval of the church to invite mourners to bring their canine friends to the funeral to give Deb the kind of send-off she would have most appreciated. And they came: big paws and small, cold noses, bright eyes, the scruffy coats and the immaculately groomed, the purebreds, the crossbreeds and the bitsers, wagging tails and curious noses. As Deborah made her final journey from the church, accompanied by a lone piper and pall-bearers in full Highland dress, the dogs formed a guard of honour from the church door to the gate.
Glenn said later that Deb would have been delighted to know that the only dog that barked throughout the service was their staffy, Myffanwee.
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