Saturday 19th July.
A day we would rather forget..
Our latest travel plan was to stop at Mount Isa only long enough to stock up with food etc then move on a further 65 km's to a highly recommended camp spot beside Coorella Lake.
We were aware that our close friends Barbara & Frank have their son Stephen working in the mines in Mount Isa. Stephen had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer late last year and had been in and out of hospital on a few occasions since then. Despite his illness he had managed to tick off a number of items on his bucket list both within Australia and overseas with his mate Mark from Melbourne.
We thought it only right that as we were passing through Mount Isa to make contact with Stephen and see how things were going. We firstly had to phone his parents in Melbourne to get Stephen's phone number or address. Gail made the call to Frank only to find that they both are currently in Mount Isa, as Stephen had passed away last Thursday, the 17th July.
This was an enormous shock to us as we have been neighbours and friends for 49 years and Stephen is roughly Colin's age, having turned fifty last February.
Naturally we revised our travel plans to stay in Mount Isa so that we can attend the funeral which is next Thursday. At this point in time there is little we can do to lend assistance to Barb and Frank as they are in the midst of making all the necessary arrangements in relation to the funeral, his house, car and two large dogs. We will move on in to Mount Isa on Monday morning, catch up with them, then book into a caravan park until after the funeral.
The rest of today is quite frankly a blur. This should not happen to any parent.
No comments:
Post a Comment