I was born into a Catholic family in 1948, the second of 6 siblings. In 1960 we moved from “The Olives”, a farming property near the small town of Howlong on the Murray River NSW to another farming property – “Dovedale” – near the likewise small town of Baralaba in Central Queensland. In 1964 I completed High School at St Brendan’s Boarding College at Yeppoon on the Capricorn Coast.
Early on the morning of Tuesday 13th October 2014 I had a conversation with the anaesthetist at the Hillcrest Hospital in Rockhampton. He informed me that colon cancer was the best cancer to have. Well, I thought, that is if you have a choice. As it happened I did not have a choice and was happy to take his assurances that I had a “good” cancer. He was proven correct in that the surgery later...
From “The Olives” to “Dovedale” Richard and Irene (aka Dad and Mum) performed an amazing feat in 1960. In June of that year they bundled the six of us kids into a Ford Customline and transferred from Howlong – a village in New South Wales on the Murray River – to Baralaba, a village hidden in the Dawson Valley out from Rockhampton in Central Queensland. We migrated...
This account was written on May 18 1998, a year after Dad passed away. It is a very hard story. It touches the heart of our family, but it can also be the story of every family, a human story of struggle with the pain and grief of a couple who loved each other so much for so long, but were unable to manage the insidious workings of dementia in their last years. This is the reason I make the...
This is my tribute of homage and respect for two men who radically impacted my life, Ton and Pat. They were not anchors upon my journey, rather were prophets and mentors challenging me forward, showing me the way by word and example. Within a short period of 10 weeks they both Crossed Over to Further Shores. They are not lost to me yet I feel deeply their absence in person. Ton...
Growing up in a Catholic Family was the dynamic exerting most influence upon my childhood. Being a Catholic for me was going to a Catholic School run by the Sisters of Mercy, going to Mass on Sunday and being an Altar Boy, saying the Rosary every night, knowing the Ten Commandments off by heart, being lined up to go to Confession while at school and singing the hymn to Mary, “Hail Queen of...
On Tuesday May 8th 2018 my sister Liz together with Remy and me searched the cemetery at Corowa NSW for Marker 237. This was in the old section of the cemetery as we looked for signs of the place our brother John was buried sixty-eight years ago. The search was led and motivated by my sister Liz who had worked for many years at Sands Australia assisting parents grieve and cope with the...