Blog 37 - 20th February

There have been no blogs for a while as I have been busy with family matters. My Dad, Peter Raphael, died on 6th February, aged 83 years. He went from home to hospital and passed away within a few days. During this time Dad managed to say goodbye to his 16 grandchildren, 6 children, Mum and his four remaining siblings, before going peacefully. He was truly ready and slipped away so gently. While it is very sad to lose Dad, the way of his dying was a gift to us all and could not have been better if he had scripted it himself. Here is a photo of Dad taken on Christmas Day.

Moving backwards in time, just before this, Damien and I had a wonderful weekend staying with Damien and Dianne, catching up with Damian, Judy and Michael, our dear friends. Thank you all for caring for us and welcoming us to Melbourne yet again.

Dianne and I went to visit Dad's family, including his 93 year old sister, Norma, mother of 15 and grandmother of 88 children. Dianne and Norma had a wonderful time sharing stories of nurse training at St Vincent's hospital.

Those who know me well will be familiar with my regular bush-walking trip to Tasmania. From Melbourne I flew to Hobart where I spent less than 24 hours before I was called back for Dad. Luckily I was not in the wilderness yet as contact would have been very tricky. I did manage a coffee at Jackman and McRoss with Biddy. Here's me with my backpack all ready on our way to the airport.

Thank you once again to my friend Marie-Ann for your hospitality. Check out those wonderful white roses taken care of by Paddy! Those who visited us when we lived in Hobart will recognize our Battery Point home in the background.

Thanks to my son, Dominic, for taking such good care of us. Here we are on our front veranda on our way to the airport - yet again!

Where's Wally (Susan?) Can you see me? We planned to meet our son Jacob in Kuala Lumper airport as he was transiting to Cambodia from Indonesia as we were passing by on our way from Australia to Korea. By coincidence, we had a 25 minute overlap, however our plane was late and he had already boarded when we arrived at the Old Town White Coffee house, a traditional Malaysian cafe. We ate a laksa and had a tradtional coffee (see the photo above) in his honour anyway!
So here we are back again happy to be home. Here is the view from our window taken this morning. It was minus three when we returned on Monday night, however today (Sunday) is a balmy 6 degrees so the snow is melting.