Basic HTML Version
Kade Cory-Wright visits with his 91 year old granddad often, enjoying Derek’s “walks down memory
lane”, sharing his long and active life. Kade wrote this account last year.
Serving in the army from ‘38 till ‘44, Derek “takes aim”
during Military training at Alexandria Park in Auckland.
Although in the army before the war started, he was
never selected to leave the country.
Derek tells Kade there were far too many farm dogs to
recollect over the years, but he lovingly remembered
Peter as “the family dog”.
Derek pictured here with the 1938 Tairua Rugby team, kneeling
behind the boy with the ball. He played fullback for many
years, playing his last game in 1957. Look for an upcoming
article in PakuViews about the Tairua Rugby Club, one of the
oldest in NZ, it will be celebrating 125 years in 2013.
As predicted, Derek weds
the pretty Doreen on 22
August, 1959. The happy
couple gazes at their first
reflection as husband
and wife on their
wedding day.
A young Derek standing near
the old Pepe Bridge.
The Cory-Wright family was one of the early homesteaders in
Tairua. This photo of the house and buildings on Main Road
was taken around 1908 before the land had been cleared for
farming. Later additions made room for extra family over the
years. Derek now lives there with Kade’s family - dad, Mark,
mum Maria and sisters, Ivy and Stella.
“M
y whole life is based on a fortune teller. Sounds
funny doesn’t it?” He chuckles. Derek Cory-Wright
has based his life on what a fortune teller told him when
he was 18.
At first he was sceptical, like most of us would be, but the
frightening accuracy of what he was told has made him believe
that his life was, and still is based on those fateful words.
Having turned 90 in the last few days, Derek doesn’t get out
much, and upon my approach, recorder in hand, he beamed
with enthusiasm ready to recite two hours worth of stories and
memories. He loves to talk.
“One day she told me that she would like to read my cup.”
He laughed “My cup?!” Working on the docks in Auckland at
the time; he explains how the fortune teller read his cup and
his hand, informing him on many events in his life that would
inevitably come true.
“The first thing she said was ‘ooh! Look at that life line! You’re
gonna live long into your 90’s’”. A fact which is looking more
and more likely as time goes on. As Derek’s life was laid out
before him he remained sceptical for many years.
“It took me about ten years until I woke up... Everything the
fortune teller said was coming true”. Sitting forward in his
chair, he exclaims how he began to realise the accuracy of his
fortune he was given at the age of 18.
As the story progresses the animation in his gestures suggests
large enthusiasm. He recites how she predicted he wouldn’t
marry until nearly 40, and how he would marry a Doreen. Both
facts which turned out to be true.
“Doreen?” he enquired of the fortune teller. “That’s a pretty
common name. Can’t you give me a little bit more?”. A sudden
pause draws attention. This being uncanny as he had talked
almost non-stop for a solid 80 minutes. He clicks his fingers,
quite a feat for a man with no thumb, while staring into the
distance. With a frustrated look, memories just out of grasp,
he smiles, leaping back into his narrative of life events.
“Another thing she told me was that the amount of times I
would nearly die was incredible. But since I knew I was going
to live to 90 I was always the one who said ‘yeah I’ll go down
into the well’ or ‘yeah I’ll give it a go’”. Derek then explained
how he worked at Tanner’s mill just outside Tairua, and how
he used the ‘special permission only’ saw, the one that had
no safety guards, while in a hurry. The resulting loss of the
thumb on his right hand echoes eerily as he explains that the
fortune teller clearly stated he would have problems with his
right hand.
He then continued to talk about multiple near death
encounters, including two attacks from bulls on the farm, the
lucky escape from a tree that had been badly felled and an
episode where he ended up hanging off the side of a container
ship by a rope, only to be hoisted back up by the wind. Each of
these was brushed off by fearless confidence.
Derek then revealed how he was told about the bad
relationships he would have with his father and his wife. As it
turned out, Derek had moved to Auckland to get away from his
14
PAKU VIEWS
ISSUE 4 AUTUMN/WINTER 2012
A TALE OF
FORTUNE
Derek Cory-Wright tells...
by Kade Cory-Wright