On Friday 9th October 2009, at 8am, my brother and I lost our beloved Dad to Cancer.
He had fought a long battle over 2 1/2 years with this horrific disease and did extremely well with it all. It was only in the last 2 weeks that it finally caught up with him when he began to deteriorate rapidly.
I contacted Scott in FNQ at lunch time on Wednesday and suggested that he should come to spend some time with Dad. Scott arrived early on Thursday morning and spent the day with him. By mid-afternoon, when I arrived after school, he was in a large amount of pain and the Dr had prescribed a Syringe Driver of morphine to be administered. The Dr had just advised Shirley, my brother and my uncle that his life expectancy was only "a matter of days".
The Blue Nurse had just arrived to administer and attach the Morphine Syringe Driver. This was a nurse who I work with and he told me that "he'd look after my Dad for me". To that, I replied: "You'd bloody better". Shirley told Scott and I to go and have some time together and she told us that shortly after we left, he was asleep and snoring.
He slept right through the night, and passed away peacefully at 8am on Friday morning.
I was at work when Shirley rang me and I arrived at the house at about 9am, where I stayed with Scott, Shirley, Uncle Dick, Sallyann and David for the rest of the day.
As heart-wrenching as it is to see him go, it is a blessing that he is not suffering anymore.
We woke up to rain this morning, so we can only hope that he has organised that so that is citrus trees can have some water.
Rest In Peace Dad, and we'll see you on Thursday morning.
