b r a v e c r e a t u r e s

For those of you who know me, you are well aware that 2005 is down as Annus horribilis for me and my loved ones. Death, desertion, divorce, dismemberment, depression, illness, unemployment, car accidents, theft, bad investments, money problems and a Liberal re-election. Truely a crappo year.

Funnily enough, looking back on it, while lots went REALLY wrong I have to say that my abiding memory of the year is that lots went really right. There is only one thing that is really bleak about 2005, but its probably the most important thing to me. Losing the love of your life is, as they say, a bit of a bummer. But I have come out of it with a list of wins that I am really happy with. Tres lucky, I am.

To me it felt like the corner was turned for 2005 just before Christmas when my mother came through her cancer operation with flying colours. Today that substantial win was compounded. I will again let my mother speak for herself in this excert from her email to friends and family.

To all of you who have helped me thru this rather dreadful time in my life, my news is suddenly such that the dance of the fairies is in the seeable future for me. Thanks to all of your prayers and for whatever other reasons may apply, I have just received a phone call from the Gold Coast Hospital with wonderful news.

My operation was done in consultation with the Royal Brisbane Hospital and their cancer experts. News has just been relayed to the Gold Coast to say that while they had told me that I would require chemotherapy, I do not need it after all. My hospital will keep an eye on me, but they believe that chemo is not necessary.

To say that I am over the moon, and have improved my state of health from 25% to 50% in the past half hour is the understatement of the year.

You REALLY cant keep the old girl down. At 74, shirley is still a force of nature.

My mother is currently recovering in the Gold Coast Hospital from an operation for bowel cancer. It looks like she is going to be ok, but this has (of course) had me thinking about her a lot. This is my telling of one of my favorite of her stories.

After six weeks away from home, she was starting to really miss the kids. They were both in their teens now, and the divorce had really shaken them up. Then to loose the house as well, they were a little fragile. But it had been time for her to get out and do something, go somewhere, have an adventure. She picked up her next card and worried that this may have been a bad move.

The car was filled with smoke from those nasty Italian cigarettes so as she looked around the room and the other players, their uniforms rumpled and askew; things seemed a little more than slightly surreal. The mint juleps were probably not helping, what did they put in them anyway? What the WAS a julep anyhow?

As she raised the bet, she looked out the window at the mountainous Swiss countryside blurring past. Snippets of it briefly illuminated by the lights of the train, only to vanish again into the darkness before it could really be recognized; an impressionist nightscape outside, a surreal world of smoke and velvet inside.

It was like she was riding through Macarthur’s Park. All she needed to see now was loves, hot fevered iron, she was already wearing a strip-ed pair of pants.

Her trip on the Orient Express was going to be memorable at least. And while there wasn’t going to be a murder, it looked like she at least would make a killing tonight.

“Full House, Royals and Aces High” she said as she laid her cards down. Groans and curses in four languages came from the crew as they threw their hands on the table. “You boys are all so sweet” she said “and I seem to be getting the hang of this game”. She pulled the pile of money from the centre of the table to join the large pile of winnings in front of her as she turned to Jean-Phillip, her cabin attendant, and said “would you be a dear and run to the dinning car to get me another drink? This one seems about done”.

Turning back to the rest of the crew she said “now just ONE more round of this interesting game before I HAVE to go back to my cabin and write to my little loves, they will be missing me so”.