Brings back memories ....

I am still thinking of mum's friend and her husband .. I just can't get them out of my head .. I guess because what happend to mum's friend's husband is very similiar to what happend to my dad (he was my step-dad but that's another story - to me he raised me so he was my dad) .. but our story is different ...............

We lived on a farm about 20 mins drive outside of Biloela, Central Queensland .. Dad loved living there he helped Stan on the property where ever he could .. he would sometimes even sit on the tractor and roll the lucerne for Stan ..

My grandfather died in the April of that year and dad was due to have a hernia operation the day after my grandfather's funeral and I remember him saying to mum "don't let them cut me open dor (mum's name is Doreen) the air will get in and cancer will get me" .. he was so scared but he had to have the operation ..

Months after the operation he started complaining about a sore back and from there it just went down hill .. mum noticed a small pea like lump on the side of his face which just got bigger and bigger .. He was falling over it was terrible .. gives you a terrible fright in the middle of the night when you hear a loud thump and someone calling for help ..

Mum even had to take him to hospital one day because he was bleeding from his you know what .. and the Dr said that's strangulation .. wtf ???? .. so they sent him home .. he was slowly getting worse - he wasn't eating and he even stopped his beer every afternoon ..

Dad's regular Dr was away so a locum was on duty when mum took him in for an appointment .. oh and he was loosing weight like you wouldn't believe he was almost a skeleton .. Dad's original Dr kept saying it's arthritis .. bullshit we all said it has to be something more ..

Anyway this locum took 1 look at dad and said "my god your 1 bloody sick man - your flying to rockhampton today via ariel ambulance" .. so it was all arranged and we all took off for Rockhampton .. we drove up in phyliss's car ..

He was in Rocky hospital for what seemed an eternity .. but it all reality it wasn't that long - we dind't have much money and had to stay in motels .. cost us a fortune .. thank god nanna and phyliss were there to help out .. They did all kinds of tests etc - but couldn't find anything - they suspected cancer but couldn't find it ..

Every time we left rocky for home - he would time us and the phone would be ringing as we walked in the door - crying his eyes out dad begged to come home .. 1 particular weekend we'd just got home - in the end we were driving 125klms to rocky and back every day as we couldn't afford a motel any more ..

Mum asked Sister Tucker if it was OK for him to come home and take him back early monday morning to which the sister replied yes .. so back we went the next morning to pick him up .. the whole way home he just stared out the window and never said a word .. the next day was saturday and it was the Matron's wedding from the bilo (biloela) hospital and mum and i wanted to go look ..

So we called up my cousin Wayne who was in bilo for the jambin B & S ball .. he went and sat with dad .. when we got home Wayne said to mum "dor, dave has been confused all afternoon he keeps calling me Wilf" .. Wayne left and mum and i decided to do some gardening .. next thing - dad hurled all the fuck's and bitches he could lay his tongue too and abused the hell out of me .. I was terrified he had never spoken to me like that ..

Mum walked over and turned his face towards her - and it was all twisted .. omg he's had a stroke she screamed ... We called out to Stan who was only a few metre's away and he kept saying "Dave it's me Stan" .. mean while my then teenage brother was watching all this and was very distraught ..

We rushed him into hospital - he couldn't talk - but he knew us .. when mum asked "if you know who i am love - squeeze my hand" .. and he did .. Jamie (my brother) said to mum "see mum he's getting better" .. mum and jamie sat most of the night at the hospital - i just couldn't the stress was too much ..

Mum got home around 5am on the sunday morning and the phone rang not long after - she rushed back up to the hospital but it was late .............................. he was gone ..

The Dr's ran tests etc - his blood pressure was normal - so they have no idea what caused the stroke .. they did suspect a brain tumor but it was never proven - mum didn't have an autopsy done because Jamie said to her "I don't want dad cut up" ..

Hearing mum's g/f talk about her husband yesterday brought all that flooding back like it was yesterday .. we still can't believe dad is gone - it just all happened so quickly ..