Mother Mary: the latest.

Not much has changed in Geelong, Mary is still seriously ill although her condition goes up and down during the day. She is conscious and talking although uncomfortable with the tubes and swollen tongue and still not really eating. However she is not passive, Carolyn said she was grumpy today when things were taking too long or the staff weren't able to do much to relieve her discomfort.

She had a lot of visitors today as the family gathered from around the country. Ray has come over from Tassie and the grandkids have all been in to visit. While this is a nice thing it is also tiring for Mary, and I wonder how she is interpreting it all. I'm not sure what she thinks about her condition. Over the last couple of weeks she has been at times disoriented and confused on top of the physical deterioration.

Carolyn spent the night at the hospital last night and is doing the same again tonight; the staff have put an extra bed in the room for her. 

She is staying with old friends of ours, Russell and Lucy whom we met through Fusion about 20 years ago. Russell spent a number of years as a school chaplain in Wangaratta and then Geelong and is now a hospital chaplain at the same hospital Mary is in. And they live two blocks away from Alan and Mary's place in Grovedale so the convenience factor is way up there.

It is very much a day by day situation with no way of telling which way it will go.

Thank you for all the messages of support and love.

BTW, I tried finding the Paul Kelly song mentioned by an anonymous commenter but had no luck. If anyone has any helpful hints on how to track it down let me know.

The family are surviving pretty well back here in Busselton. I'll update on the latest big happenings at Holt Press in a day or two, suffice to say there has been considerable upheaval and emotion of late, as a result of a combination of sadness and grief in Geelong and dealing with a traumatic experience back here, followed by a piece of wonderful news which has lead to a  new sense of hope and vision.

Sorry to be vague but I will blog about it all shortly.