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[Page 110]
We were all aware of this and our phone calls were also more and more important and of course her treasured letters to us all and our eagerly waited replies.
John turned 50 in the July of this year and Mother was beside herself with excitement. A party was planned at the Balmain Leagues Club. Mum made and iced the cake and that night was one of her happiest. She had the best time. John gave Mother a beautiful string of pearls that night, she treasured them as she treasured the son who gave them to her.
Now forgive me if have some of these recollections out of sequence, but somewhere around this time Mum spent a special evening with Margaret at the Pyrmont Powerhouse, a holiday (another train ride) in Canberra with John and Wood family. During her stay in Canberra Mum also saw Beryl, Stan. Stan Jnr and Lynn O'Hare.
Mother made further contact with her doctor from Darlinghurst, John Alam. It was necessary for Mother to have a Sydney doctor as she was spending more and more time in Sydney.
Betty and Barrie went overseas in the September of 1987 and Wayne too took off overseas that year. Beryl was having frequent visits to the Sydney Eye Hospital and this was a constant cause of worry for Mum, especially when after several weeks in hospital Beryl's eye was not getting any better.
October 1987 was another train journey to Sydney, however this visit was different because Mum did not return to Ballina, well not on her own. Mum continued to live with Alan and me from that visit onwards. She never lived alone again.
How I wish I could turn this into a fairytale and say "and they lived happily ever after", The End. Not so. the story isn't finished. We did live happily though, Mum. Alan and me. Perhaps we were like the three bears. This time though I was the Mamma Bear. Alan was the Pappa Bear and my dear dear mother was Baby Bear.
Within one month of Mother living with us I resigned my job with Lend Lease. I wanted to have lots of time to share with Mum, we always found things to do, very rarely did we do anything without each other. It was special and it was fun. Christmas 1987 was celebrated at North Ryde.
Would you believe it's now 1988 and Australia Day comes to mind. A day or so before Australia Day "The 3 Bears" went to see the Tall Ships sail into Botany Bay, it was spectacular, a sight to remember. We celebrated Australia Day with a barbecue and glued to our television sets, watching Australia's biggest ever party