My Mum died this afternoon (8Oct) at about 2:20pm.

My brother, Peter, received a call from the nursing home this morning to say that Mum’s breathing had become very shallow and they were moving her into the palliative care room. I’d intended to go up tomorrow but decided I should go today. She was deeply unconscious yet still held my hand. I sat with her praying and speaking gently to her for about 2 hours. At one point I asked her to squeeze my hand if she could hear me. She did and shook my hand quite vigorously for her weakened condition. I knew she was hearing me so continued to speak blessing over her. My sister Stephanie arrived about 1:30pm and I took the opportunity to go for some lunch. On my return I passed Steph driving off. She said Mum’s breathing was extremely shallow and sometimes stopped altogether. As I walked down the hallway the nurse, Heather, met me to say that Mum had just died. She just stopped breathing.

The staff were wonderful! They came into the room to farewell to Mum and took the time to sit with me and give comfort. They talked of the good experiences they’d had with her, and they gave me opportunity to talk of Mum and what she meant to me. They asked if I’d like the chaplain to come and I felt it very right to say ‘yes’. The chaplain was wonderful. We prayed over Mum and she anointed her with oil and committed her into God’s hands. We had a good time talking and sharing together which helped me to process what had happened and was happening.

I don’t know when the funeral will be, possibly Tuesday. We have yet to let all the rels know as well Mum’s many friends.

Even though this has been expected for some time, it is still painful. I grieve Mum’s passing, but I’m glad she’s finally at rest. She’s in God’s hands, the very best place to be.

My Mum: born 3 July 1917, died 8 October 2008… a long life!

Wheel Problems

Originally uploaded by bhojman

It seems like I have absolutely no luck with a certain trailer rental company here in Oz. About a month ago I rented a furniture van trailer from them to take stuff from storage down to my place in the southern highlands. We only discovered after completely loading the trailer and heading off that the trailer had no brakes… we discovered the cable was broken and looked like it had been that way for a while. We travelled carefully. My friend was towing with his landrover but even it was pushed through intersections. Down near Campbelltown one of the wheels began to wobble horribly. We discovered that the brake thingy inside the wheel had come loose and was flying around inside the wheel. A mechanic friend fixed that problem and we continued carefully on our way. We lost a number of hours as a result and got back home exhausted.
Last Saturday (Sep27) we again rented the trailer from the same company. The brakes had been repaired.
BUT then, what else can go wrong with a trailer??? We were nearly 200 kms down the road when a passing car frantically pointed at our trailer wheels. We stopped to check and found a wheel almost off with no grease in sight and the ball bearings half gone. We spent 4 hours waiting for help. They sent a mechanic to fix the wheel only he wasn’t able to because the axle nut was ground onto the axle and could not be removed. He felt we’d be okay with 3 wheels and as this load wasn’t too heavy so we tentatively took off and did the rest of the trip on 3 wheels.
Never again do we rent from that company. They were not willing to take responsibility and intimated that we must have hit something! Rubbish! It is poor business practice, poor maintenance, and poor customer support. They gave me a 10% discount off the rental price - an insult!
Both incidents could have ended in injury or death.
The company here in Oz seems to be affiliated with U-Haul in the US. U-Haul seems not to have taken responsible position on the renting of trailers over there. See: Dangers with U-Haul Trailers
I’m just really glad we lived to tell the tale.

Wind swept tree at North Head

Originally uploaded by bhojman

Went out to North Head the other day at the entrance of Sydney harbour. Among the various interesting things to see was this windswept tree. It was dead. The photo I took of it turned out to be a almost a b&w photo. There are spots of blue sky visible through the dead branches so it really isn’t a b&w photo.

These past weeks have been pretty intense as my siblings and I have been visitng with our Mum and watching as she continues to decline. The fact that she’s still alive amazes the doctors. She is bedridden unable to turn herself over; life must be terribly boring for her. We visited as much as we could, some days she was lucid and other days not. It is so hard to watch this decline… she was always so fiercely independent, and capable… now she is totally helpless and dependent on others for everything. Old age can be so awful.

Yesterday we completed the cleanup of her house. There were many memory items which we’ve distributed among ourselves. I have some of the furnishings for setting up my home here in Oz. However, the bulk of linens, furniture (beds, wardrobes, sofas, etc), kitchen items, etc where given to the Salvation Army for their op shop. The house will now be leased for 6 months. The end of an era…

I came back to Sydney yesterday and am beginning to pick up the pieces of my life again. I feel washed out emotionally and physically. I need time to reflect, to recuperate, and to process all that’s happened. These past couple of months have been intense!!

I will go up to visit Mum regularly each week.

I was gone to Thailand for 5 weeks in April/May. When I returned I found my Mum had had a fall while I was gone. During my first week back she had another 2 falls. During each fall she banged her head but had no obvious injuries. With the 3rd fall the ambulance took her to Emergency when it became clear something was wrong. A CT scan revealed a brain hemorrhage and she has since lost the use of her left arm and leg. She been in hospital since. Things don’t look too good for her. Besides the hemorrhage, she’s since had a small stroke, battled a nasty urinary tract infection, a chest infection, and a large clot develop in her left leg, quite apart from her diabetes and congestive heart failure issues.

She was way out of it for a while but has come good physically, at least she doesn’t look as if she’s going to die any minute. We (my siblings and I) have been constantly at the hospital and this has been pretty tiring emotionally.

Dementia has begun to become apparent. This is the last thing she would have wanted. Dad died in 1987 of a heart attack. It was sudden and unexpected. That’s how Mum has wanted to die. However, she seems to be just slowly fading away. It is so very hard to see. It is hard to feel so helpless.

Yesterday she was moved to a nursing home where she will probably live out the rest of her days. Today we found the home in lockdown as a number of residents have come down with a nasty bug… not a good time for my Mum to have been moved.

On July 3 she celebrated her 91st birthday.

“Make every effort to [show] … kindness.”
2 Peter 1:5-7 NIV

Have you noticed that sometimes the busier we get, the less we seem to show kindness to others? Kindness doesn’t happen in a vacuum, or as the result of a good Sunday morning sermon. We have to practice it.

www.thewordfortoday.com.au

Dead Tookae

Originally uploaded by bhojman

I’m back in Thailand for a few weeks. It’s great to be here… but it is HOT! I’m mad to come at this time of year but as the conference I was attending was held over Songkhran there wasn’t much I could do about the timing of the trip.
The conference was held at a resort out from Chiang Mai. After a day or two we found this Tookae on the wall of the closet… very dead. No idea what killed him but he wasn’t there when we arrived.
Told the housekeeper about it and asked her to remove it, which she didn’t… too terrified, I suspect. I finally, very gingerly brushed it off the wall into the waste basket. It was beginning to pong and it was time to act.
The poor housekeeper got quite a fright the next morning when she cleaned the room… but a very dead Tookae was finally disposed of.

Sunrise, Easter Morn

Originally uploaded by bhojman

I am rarely up at dawn but this Easter as I was going to church at 7:30am I managed it, and was delighted to see a spectacular sunrise. I see plenty of sunsets and take heaps of photos of them… but sunrises… uh uh… no way.
Anyway, the beauty of the morning touched my heart in a lovely way and I was delighted to rejoice afresh in the resurrection of Jesus…
The sunrise spoke to me of a new day, new life, freshness, hope…
Great!

Queen Victoria and QE2 in Sydney

Originally uploaded by bhojman

The QV (right) and the QE2 (left) tap dance around Fort Dennison on Sydney Harbour. It was a very lovely sight. After spending several hours wandering around Circular Quay taking photos of QV, I then walked back up onto the bridge walkway. It was a great spot to observe the events on the harbour.

Gang-gang Cockatoos eating hawthorn berries

Originally uploaded by bhojman

I was camped at my property in Majors Creek last week and had a fun time watching the gang-gang cockatoos eating the hawthorn berries. The trees were full of them, all cracking open the berries and eating the centre. They did this all day! I was ignored as I walked around taking photos of them. I’ve been told that as the berries ferment the gang-gangs get tipsy. I suspect they were beginning to experience that as I watched them. The morning I left they were screeching and it reminded me of someone with a hangover….
The one in the photo here is female. The male has a red head with a red tuft. They’re really quite lovely to watch.