Well . . . somehow I have actually been able to get all my cards sent out as well as all the thank yous to people who sent cards and/or flowers when Mum left her body behind for the last time . . . but in case I happened to miss out on somebody . . . and you happen to have found your way here . . . then this "Merry Christmas" and "Thank You" is for you as well as everyone else. As you can see in the video (below), thanks to my wonderful friends Vic & Elizabeth who put me on to it, I have discovered the Jib Jab website, where you can create some pretty cool greeting card videos using faces from photos you upload to the website. This one still makes me smile and chuckle every time I watch it.
Yep thats us (Nick & Sarah, my two amazing children, and me) in that there video singing & playing "Rockin 'Round The Christmas Tree" LOL! This is our Chrissy card for you . . . and we hope it brings as big a smile to your face as it does to ours :) . . . and once again . . . Merry Christmas to you, and all your loved ones . . . and my 2012 be the year in which all your dreams come true!
Love & Blessings from John, Nick, & Sarah :)
Hey guess what . . . I just turned 53, and to celebrate, my wonderful friend Sheryl invited me to share a "Breakfast With The Beasts" at the Cairns Wildlife Safari Reserve with her and her friend Helen. It was a fantastic way to spend several hours, even though it was pretty hot there . . . we started with a hearty breakfast and then proceeded to move around the reserve to where different animals were being fed every half hour or so, and the extremely knowledgeable staff at each feeding location generously shared a wealth of information about the animals as they fed them.
We noticed this rather angry lioness (above) just after breakfast, and could not work out why she was growing at us all so fearcely . . . until we saw a piece of meat our side of the electric fence just out of her reach reach LOL! She sure didn't want us to get that meat! Fortunately for her (and maybe us too LOL!), a very kind young guy eventually pushed it over to her under the electric fence with a stick, and she was one happy tabby after that :)
The video above was made during the lions feeding time. You will notice a few of them get too close to the electric fence at times and get a bit of a wake up call zap. It was amazing to be so close to them as they ate. Here we are (below, Sheryl in the centre) taking a break till it was time for the brown bears to eat.
In the video below, Sheryl gets up close and personal with the ginormous, but extremely gentle giant of the Reserve . . . the White Rhinocerous . . . all two and a half tons of him. It was pointed out to us that the wire barriers would not keep him in if he really want to escape (did you see Jurasic Park?? LOL!) . . . so we were strongly encouraged to move slowly and not make any loud noises while we all took turns to say hello to this guy as he was eating. Wowwwwww . . . what a great birthday pressy . . . thanks so much Sheryl! :)
Someone sent me the link to this video, and although it seems almost sacrilegious to do this to crop circles, I found the beginning, at least, really catchy, and wanted to share it with you . . . enjoy :)
Well, with almost 12 months having raced by since my last update, it sure is time for one now . . . and its looking like this is going to be the last one for a while . . . because . . . as you have probably worked out from this update's title, this one is to let you know that Mum left her body, and is now free from any sort of suffering, and happily reunited with all of her discarnate loved ones, including her beloved husband Max.But before I get to that, I really do need to take a few minutes to fill in the gap a little since the last Blog submission . . . both to honour the friends that have helped make Mum's life as wonderful as it could be, and to thank those people for the love and energy they always gave her so willingly. There were many more than those I happened to take pics of, so if you are in that category, please know that your love and support was no less appreciated than those that are not.
The pic above was from when Mum had a suprise visit from Deanna Stagger, Patsy Hannam, and Lorraine Sheehan on the 10th of April.
Mum was thrilled when a couple of old friends, Shirley & John Poole (above) called in on the 12th of June whilst taking part in an inter-city lawn bowls tournament at the local Atherton Bowling Club.
Mum had several dear friends who visited her regularly, and because of that I usually did not think to take pics of them, but on the 24th June, we had two of them visit at the same time . . . on the left (above) is Delphi, and on the right is Meg. Thank you ladies . . . your friendship and presence in Mum's life made an unbelievable difference.
On 26th July, Mum celebrated her 82nd birthday, and as usual, (above) there were candles to blow out and a cake to cut after our Birthday Dinner at the International Club.
The 26th August saw the return of the Adler Sisters, and this (above) is the third pic (or maybe even the fourth) of this Annual event that Mum loved and looked forward to with great enthusiasm. This great group of siblings usually wore something matching (take note of the decorated tops), but sadly, Janet let the team down this year, and probably has still not heard the end of it LOL!
This pic (above) was taken on the 17th of October when the Steinmanns (Heinze, Miva, & Heidi) brought their latest addition to the family, little son and brother Liam, along to meet Mum for the first time. Mum thoroughly enjoyed the visit.Five days after this, on the 22nd of October, Mum took her final ambulance ride to the hospital after waking up to an Angina attack, and being unable to alleviate the pain and distress of it via the usual methods of the under-the-tongue nitrate spray and oxygen. She then spent a week in hospital going in and out of the High Dependancy unit, but the combination of her heart simply running out of steam, and the increasing need for pain relief to keep her comfortable, meant that she finally left her body behind for good around 11:00 pm on Saturday 29th October, 2011.
Clicking on the "Celebration Of Life" service program front page (above) will enable you to open or download the full program to your computer.
Like Dad's, Mum's "Celebration Of Life" service was held at the Atherton Uniting Church and conducted by the Church Minister, Reverend Leo Newell. Everyone that I spoke to about it afterwards commented on how positive and uplifting it was.
Also like Dad's, Mum's coffin (above) was white with gold trim . . . but hers was topped with a beautiful spray of mostly pink roses . . . just as she had requested.One special part of Mum's "Celebration Of Life" Service was a 10 minute video presentation created by my brother Phil, with dozens of snippits of footage of Mum over the last 20 or so years . . . set to one of her favourite pieces of music . . . Strauss's The Blue Danube . . . and now that it has been uploaded to YouTube (above), you are invited to share in these these memories as well.
When the service was over, I was joined (above) by my brother Peter to my right, my brother Phil behind me, Phils son Harley to his right, our Uncle Kel behind Phil, and our Uncle Geoff to his right, to carry Mums coffin out to the hearse which was to take her, once all rituals were finished were said, to be cremated.
This (above) was a special moment with my daughter Sarah, who had been able to make the funeral. My son, Nick, had been in the middle of exams and simply unable to be there with us. Still, he had been able to make Dad's whereas Sarah hadn't, so it all works out in the end. :)
Phil, Shellie, Sarah & I (above) wait for friends and family to join us outside the church for the final rituals.
With the service over, it was a time for everyone to share in a sumptuous afternoon tea and for old friends and family to catch up and reminisce about special times spent with Valmae. Here (above) we see Phil, Roberta, Pete, and Patsy & Chris.
One of the best speakers (I thought) was my Uncle Kel, and here he is (above) with his daughter (my cousin) Susie. They came up from Tully for the day.
The following day . . . with the Celebration over . . . meant some relaxing time for family . . . and some time with my other Uncle who was able to make it, Geoff, and his wife Daphne. Here they are, with Sarah, Phil, Pete, & I (above).
One thing our family is really good at is acting the fool . . . and it can be pretty funny at times . . . and so posing for this shot (above) meant some light relief to the seriousness of the past few days.
And finally (yep, I know, this was a long post with lots of pics) . . . I just had to include one of Pete's wife Barb, who took on the role of photographer for the few days that they were up here from Melbourne, and basically provided me with most of the pics taken of the funeral. Here she is (above) in a great shot with Auntie Daph.
