IN MEMORY OF ILSE SANDNER

On 3rd July many friends gathered at our home to farewell and celebrate the life of my remarkable much loved wife who had lived in the Dayboro area since 1991.  She passed away peacefully without pain or drugs after a long and noble battle against Cancer on 29th June 2009.

She was remarkable because of all she had achieved in 66 years and for her enduring positive, can do attitude, and always laughing sunny disposition, often in the face of adversity.
Ilse Friederike Maria Sandner was born in Austria at Wollersdorf 23rd April 1943.  She had an older brother Walter who tragically died in 2005 in a mountaineering accident.  Her parents both died of cancer.  She is survived by her husband and one beloved niece and nephew and step sister.
Ilse’s early life was in Kabrun where her father worked as an Engineer on the Dam building in the mountains nearby.  She spent her holidays and every available spare moment either skiing in winter or running around these mountains in the summer holidays.
She learned to ski at age 7 on wooden skis that would defeat the modern skier, but not Ilse.  She was fearless.

She attended several schools in Austria, lastly in Wiener Neustadt, near Vienna.  She was an accomplished student, and played classical piano in junior concert, loved dancing on ice skates and also went to every Viennese ball that she could. Waltz was her favourite.  Her mother made her dresses, and chaperoned from the balcony in case Ilse might misbehave with her partners.  Viennese social life was very proper in those days!
She joined the local Mountaineering Club and climbed some well known Alpine mountains.
Ilse became a Maths and P.E teacher because of the long holidays to go travelling.  Her Mother wished her to be a medical doctor, too bad!  She had already developed an overpowering desire for travel.
1962 at age 19 Ilse and friend Berta did a three month stint at Au-Pairing in a Scottish Castle, with interesting tales to tell.
1965-1970 she was married to Karl and journeyed by their old Volkswagen beetle to Iran via Turkey, to teach at the German School in Teheran.  They had various adventures on route, sleeping sometimes in the ditch to avoid bandits.
She travelled around Iran extensively and then, fed up with Teheran expatriate life, she took time off to journey through Afghanistan across the searing desert, up the Khyber Pass into Pakistan, then India, and Nepal, in an old Kombi bus, which was sold in Kathmandu.  Visits to Burma and Ceylon along the way also.  There are many stories to tell.
She hiked two weeks to Mt Everest, crossing freezing rivers on the way, and met Y. Miura who lent her a sleeping bag to warm up in.  He later skied down Everest with a parachute, and then Sir Edmund Hillary gave her lunch and a free flight back to Kathmandu in his little plane.
1970 to 1973 Ilse had many more adventures in N. Africa, six months in  a kibbutz in Israel, wandering around Ethiopia and was lucky to survive, and Rhodesia where she almost lost her life once again trying to cross a swollen tributary of the Zambezi river in a 4WD, but lost everything else including passport and money.
Somehow she got back into S. Africa without passport and then went down with Malaria.
In 1973 -76 she met her future husband (me), journeyed around S. America for a year, once again by an old Kombi and in 1977 to 1980 worked in Japan.  She worked as a Teacher at the German School in Tokyo.
In those years she travelled often alone around the Pacific Region, and had many adventures including having a knife pulled on her and a crowd trying to stone her in Sumatra.
In 1980 she left Japan to travel via Trans Siberian Express to Moscow on her way to her family in Austria and recounts how she was ever hungry as the good train food got sold to locals at each station instead of to the passengers!
1980 -2009 she lived in Australia, initially in Sydney, and studied by correspondence for a Bachelor of Arts, Master of Education and Master of Letters Degrees and Graduate Diploma in Computer Studies. She played A grade squash, tennis, skied superbly, and enjoyed hard bush walks and climbing, and playing classical music on her beloved piano.  She enjoyed the marvels of nature so much and lived life in the now.
She also found out how to build houses and after completing several house extensions was Owner Builder for a beautiful Pole house in Woodward Rd.
In 2001 we moved across the valley, to build our current house in beautiful surroundings and she planned the building of that house also.
We travelled around Australia several times and crossed various deserts and down the Canning Stock Route and back across the Great Victorian Desert among other 4WD trips and she was always an inspiration when the going got tough.  She planned the trips and was a super navigator.
In 1998 then again in 1999 Ilse contracted Breast Cancer, and fought the battle mostly by natural means. In 2007 she was again diagnosed with a large tumour wrapped around one lung and her Venae Cavae Superior.  She was lucky to survive.  After a long battle again mostly by natural means, and getting ever fitter,  she was diagnosed in April 2009 with multiple brain tumours, but such was this person that she never ever gave in, and never complained, or even cried.  She even booked ski accommodation for September this year, such was her positive attitude.
Ilse was multi talented, but never boastful.  She was inquisitive and always ready to learn, competitive, always cheerful and friendly, and never a bad word for anyone. She always expected to ski until she was at least 85 years old and she had me convinced, but she never succeeded in that on this Earth, but now I know she will ski forever in Paradise, in everlasting deep powder snow, in beautiful weather, and no doubt will be renovating her room in one of God’s many mansions.
Her ashes will soon be buried at Samsonvale Cemetery after a small ceremony. She always wished for a house with water views so now her wish is finally granted. She will never be forgotten.