Ann Margaret Forward - Heartfelt Funerals

Date of Funeral

June 18, 2026

Obituary
Condolences

Family and friends are respectfully invited to attend a celebration of Ann’s life, on Thursday the 18th of June 2026. The service will be commencing at 10:30am, and taking place at Albany Creek Memorial Park, Bridgeman Downs (See Map Below).

LIVESTREAM LINK

Albany Creek Memorial Park

Condolences(2)

REPLY
Catherine Damoisy says
June 17, 2026 at 12:52 pm

Dear Diana,
Please accept my most sincere sympathies. I am thinking of you and your family and sending you strength. I thought I would also send you this little poem I learnt at school years ago…
“Ognuno sta solo sul cuor della terra, trafitto da un raggio di sole: ed è subito sera.” Salvatore Quasimodo, 1930
REPLY
Jo Thomson says
June 18, 2026 at 10:15 am

I’ve been thinking about Ann and her family ever since Stephanie told me the sad news. I am really happy Ann lived to be a great grandmother, but in my mind she will always be the passionate mother and political activist I met at university in 1971. She was 30 and I was 18 and I spent an inordinate amount of time under her wing, not least so I can babysit her three wonderful children aged, I think 4. 6 and 10. Ann taught me how to make pizza, the importance of salads and washing towels regularly, the reality that you didn’t have to love all your family, the benefits of having children when you are young, and always the subtext of women’s rights and social justice, which I absorbed like oxygen.
In Brighton, Ann and Kevin often hosted me and others until 3 or 4 in the morning. Despite Kevin ‘resting his eyes’ they were fabulous people to be with and there were always other interesting people there as well.
When I moved to the Dandenongs, the Forwards often came up for a day trip, and when the family moved to ?Newcastle, I was very happy to get the odd letter, including an article about Ann in their local paper, where she had long hair. Even as a visiting urban geography academic, she’d involved herself in local politics.
Ann and Kevin moved all over the country from their childhoods in Perth, where they became firm friends on the school bus, and I visited them in Coburg, Canberra, and Queensland. I was chuffed that they came down for my wedding in 1991 and then for a farewell tour of Melbourne about 15 years ago.
We didn’t see a lot of each other in the meantime. We caught up when Ann was awarded honorary life membership by her union, for whom she achieved so much in the 1970s, and I visited Canberra for her 60th and ?Toowoomba for a wedding anniversary. Perhaps because we met when I was still a teenager, I always felt part of the extended Forward family and expected that I would see Ann again.
I stopped ringing because it felt that the phone calls were a bit of a trial for her, especially after Kevin became so unwell. The distance was uncomfortable, and I was aware Ann had children and grandchildren to keep up with, so finally it was thanks to Stephanie for keeping me in touch.
I will never forget Ann’s clear warm firm voice, her rich laugh, her intensity, intelligence, openness and her convictions. I am feeling pretty weepy now, but I’m really happy and grateful to have been her friend, maybe even an adopted extra child, at times.
Diana and Penny, my heart is with you and your kids. I have no doubt you gave her the best final years that you could and you will always have my love.