Greetings!
We hope this Christmas letter finds you well and happy as we near the end of 2009.
We’ve had a year that when we reflect upon it, was a year of change in terms of our attitude towards life and the importance of taking the most of every opportunity life has to offer - because you never know when things can change and opportunities not taken are precious moments lost.Let’s start at the beginning and fill you in on what has been happening.
January saw us heading to Jurien Bay for New Year and Sandy Cape for 2 weeks of camping. As usual, we had a wonderful time with friends and relaxation was our major concern.
In April we headed to a place called Tamala Station – south of Shark Bay –with friends for fishing, fun and relaxing. There are basic facilities (a disgusting long drop!) but as we are all self sufficient, this is no problem. It was a lovely place to stay. We camped right on the beach and the weather was mostly fantastic. A bit pricey per night given you get nothing much in return, but still, a nice experience. Glad we have been there.
We flew to Melbourne with a group of friends for football. We love Melbourne and had so much fun. We flew with Tiger Airways – the trip across was great, but the trip back was one of those horror stories.
During July we trekked north again mid year to Cape Karaudren again– about 200 km north of Port Hedland, turn off near Pardoo Roadhouse. We spent the holidays there fishing and relaxing with friends. None of the kids came with us so it was just us. It is always fabulous to go far north. We never tire of the colour and beauty of the places we visit.Steve is still at District Office working with the Directors. He will continue his work there until mid 2010. He is really enjoying it. He has been away several times during the year on WAPPA business or as his role as Principal Consultant to Sydney, Adelaide and Canberra.
Paula remains at Oberthur in Bull Creek as a Pre Primary teacher which she loves and is still the Learning Support Coordinator. She just loves the job and the children.
After Ashleigh’s difficult conclusion to her Year 12 in 2008, she headed to Notre Dame Uni this year to study Early Childhood Education. She has enjoyed her first year there and has just completed her first prac. She also now has her driver’s license and bought a little car which she loves to bits. She has a lovely boy friend who, much to Ashleigh’s horror, actually will come over just to visit Mark and David and play with water pistols and X Box games. She also continues her part time job at Woolworths where she has just been made a supervisor. No extra pay, just sounds important. So 2009 for Ashleigh has been brighter.
Mark is now entering his third year of his Metal Fabrication apprenticeship through CCI at Naval Base. He works extremely long hours, leaving home at 5.00am and returning about 4.30pm. Most weeks he works Monday through to Saturday. He only has about another 18months to go. He continues with his Army Reserve commitments which he loves. He occasionally heads off to Northam for extra training during the year which he enjoys. He spends his spare time asleep on the chair in the lounge!
David - and this is where our year has altered our attitude on life and living. David turned 21 in April. Wow, where did that time go? After much discussion he decided he would take us up on our offer to pay for him and a friend to go to Bali for a week. (This was good for us as we didn’t need to plan a party!) He chose to take his brother Mark, which was lovely and off they went. We are not sure what exactly they did each day other than eat, swim, shop and sleep, but it seems they had a terrific time. And anyway, do we really want to know?He continued his casual work at Sweet Lips and Uni and was plodding along nicely. On August 21st at about 10.45 pm, we received one of those phone calls every parent dreads. David had been the victim of an 89 year old driver who had run a red light and collided with his car. David being the driver, took the full brunt of impact. He had 3 passengers that thankfully were not badly injured. .One of the passengers stepped out of the car, the other 2 were admitted to hospital and discharged the following afternoon.
David was a mess. He was rushed to RPH Emergency with so many injuries. The most life threatening being a torn aorta, massive internal bleeding, bleeding to the brain, a severely crushed pelvis plus multiple bilateral rib fractures, right eye laceration, tears, bruising or grazes to all major organs of his body as well as many minor cuts and bruising to his body. As we write this, the emotions we felt 15 weeks ago are swamping over us and we are overwhelmed with so many memories of so many things.
We were never directly told until weeks later by Police or doctors, but no-one had expected David to survive the ambulance trip, first night or the next 48 hours. We were told ‘things were not good’. It took emergency staff about 7 hours to find and stem the bleeding enough to work on the torn aorta. David ended up having a permanent stent placed in his aorta covering the main artery leading to his left arm and the blood supply to his left arm is now being feed through a minor vein – so far no side affects, but we monitor his progress. He had the most amazing surgeon for his pelvis - Professor Rene Zellwegger (It really is his name!) who is the top orthopaedic surgeon in Australia. He is brilliant! We thank God over and over he was working at RPH. He has been so caring and totally magnificent towards us all every step of the way.David’s story of recovery is a long one. He (and we!!) spent a week in the ICU at RPH, several days in the High Dependency Ward, about a week and a half in the Trauma Unit and then about 3 weeks in Shenton Park before coming home. Given that initially we were told David would not come home until the end of November, his remarkable recovery and discharge from hospitals has stunned and amazed everyone. We think the desire to just go home and eat home made food was also a major driving force in his recovery!! He did not enjoy his hospital stay. We cannot thank everyone enough for the thoughts, prayers, food, phone calls, emails, cards, texts, care and concern poured onto all of us during that time and continues now. We also cannot praise enough the skills of the staff at RPH especially in Emergency and ICU. Apart from their medical skills, the care and compassion they gave to us leaves us speechless. They shared our tears and joys and we do not have words enough to express our gratitude to so many.
He has decided not to go back to uni and is looking into an electrical apprenticeship. We take each day as it comes.
We are heading to Albany after Christmas Day for several days to stay on the farm with Paula’s mum then onto the beaches east of Esperance which we have never explored. We are meeting up with friends when we get to Esperance. This year we sold the Kimberly Kamper and purchased a more comfortable Quantum ZS from Australian Off Road Campers. We haven’t really had much of an opportunity to use it yet as David’s dramas got in the way so we are looking forward to giving it a good run.
David, Mark and Ashleigh are not coming. David is able to recommence light duty work on December 21st and is itching to get back to work. His co workers are all his friends and while they have been fantastic throughout his recovery with continuous streams of people visiting him in hospital and at home, we think he just wants to regain a sense of normal life again and just get out there!
So that is the end of 2009, one we will look back on with much emotion, appreciation and thankfulness.
David has asked for sausages for Christmas lunch!!! Sausages he shall have.
All the best to everyone for a safe and Happy Christmas and holiday season.