Sad day

My friend Joanne died yesterday morning.

Joanne had been diagnosed with terminal bowel cancer about 18 months ago and I was one of a group of friends pitching in to help her since. She hasn't been well for the last 4 or 5 months and has spent the last month in the Palliative Care Unit at Springwood Hospital. On Wednesday, after being in considerable pain and after speaking with the Palliative Care specialist, she had her pain medication increased a fair bit knowing it would make her very sleepy and that she would be unlikely to wake again. When I arrived at the hospital on Wednesday early evening she was still awake, lucid and forthright as she has been all through. She told me she was not afraid and asked if I was going to stay until the end. Joanne's daughter Claire, her niece Catherine, another friend Jo and I stayed all night, one or other of us staying with her and holding her hand until she finally passed away just after 10 yesterday morning. Jo and I then laid her out for her family to come and say their last goodbyes.

Joanne was one of the women I met when we first came up to the mountains and I joined a New Mums group. Claire is only a few days older than James and Robert. She was both the first of the group to have a second baby and the first to go back to work. She was frighteningly clever and was an Actuary, a job she had to give up last year. We didn't see a lot of each other after she went back to work. Ian used to travel on the same train for a while so he saw her then more than I but she sought me out again when she became sick and knew she would need chemotherapy because she knew I'd been through the same experience. Unfortunately she was not as lucky as I and soon found she wouldn't have much longer to live.

Joanne leaves 4 children in the care of her former husband.

In April last year we went on a holiday to Queensland with Joanne and her kids and had a great time.