(The photo is one I took of a photo Paula showed me of her at her 90th party. What a Wonder Woman she is)
John had many near death experiences that he miraculously escaped. After he retired we came up here. Out of the blue in June 1999 he was playing the violin. Our friend Helen was playing our black grand piano. John fell and I thought he was mucking around. He couldn’t speak and grabbed his chest. We thought he was having a heart attack. Helen put his feet up and we called the nurses up the road. It was an Aneurism. The ambulance came so quickly and I found out much later that the ambulance man was off duty two streets away from our house with his paramedic van. He was rushed to Lismore Hospital. There was woman doctor on in ICU and they rushed him straight into surgery. I rang our daughter Suzanne in London and she panicked because being a nurse herself she knew the seriousness of it. Within hours she had arranged to fly here. She believed she was coming to her fathers funeral.
He had been feeling it for some time as he could feel it pulsating for days before. We were in the hospital waiting for so long and the surgeon came out and said to me ‘Your husband should have died on his lounge room floor but now that he’s here he won’t survive the night so be prepared. I thought how do you be prepared. Helen stayed with me and we never slept. The next morning he was still alive. The Doctor told me that as they were rushing him to surgery he died. He had heart failure and he was bleeding to death. After two days he started to blow up. Apparently he used every ounce of his type blood in Lismore and they sent for more in Brisbane. In the meantime they couldn’t stop him blowing up. They opened him up and they found a bit of his bowel had been knocked around in surgery. They left him open because he was so swollen all over he couldn’t breathe. They left him open for 13 days in an induced coma. Eventually they couldn’t sew him back together so for all those years since he has lived in an abdominal belt /binder.
The head doctor told us John had gone into toxic shock and once again I was told he won’t survive the night. I asked if they were ever wrong and I wasn’t being facetious. She said yes. We called for more prayers and we had so many people praying for him. He was alive the next morning. It was a long battle. He caught every bug that was going. After a long time the doctors came to me and said they thought he was going to be one of the very rare survivors of an Aneurism and they called him the miracle man. He was known as that for many years. The photo I am holding is him 4 months after he got out of hospital. Look how beautiful he is. They said he would have nightmares because of all the drugs he had been on but he never had one. He was such a unique person.
We have a son Colin who lives in Sydney and our daughter Suzanne in London. We just had twin grandchildren and our first grandchild is Coco.
When I turned 90 I wanted to wear something different to my party so I found my Wonder Woman costume and I had to take it in because I had lost weight.
John and I have been Vegetarians since 1951. We have lived on plant foods and lentils, etc. We don’t eat fish either because of the Mercury content. There is some wonderful Vegetarian and Vegan recipes. We grew up in mining towns and you ate everything you were given but when we married John and I went on our Vegetarian diet. He stuck to it and never ever compromised. The Mediterranean diet is better for you.
There is a verse in the Bible – ‘As water reflects the face so ones life reflects the heart.’ In all the years I knew John he never spoke disparagingly about anyone. He only saw the good in everybody. He was the most beautiful Christian man in the true sense of the word. We were married for 67 years. He passed away on the 3rd December 2017 and I miss him so much.”
John had many near death experiences that he miraculously escaped. After he retired we came up here. Out of the blue in June 1999 he was playing the violin. Our friend Helen was playing our black grand piano. John fell and I thought he was mucking around. He couldn’t speak and grabbed his chest. We thought he was having a heart attack. Helen put his feet up and we called the nurses up the road. It was an Aneurism. The ambulance came so quickly and I found out much later that the ambulance man was off duty two streets away from our house with his paramedic van. He was rushed to Lismore Hospital. There was woman doctor on in ICU and they rushed him straight into surgery. I rang our daughter Suzanne in London and she panicked because being a nurse herself she knew the seriousness of it. Within hours she had arranged to fly here. She believed she was coming to her fathers funeral.
He had been feeling it for some time as he could feel it pulsating for days before. We were in the hospital waiting for so long and the surgeon came out and said to me ‘Your husband should have died on his lounge room floor but now that he’s here he won’t survive the night so be prepared. I thought how do you be prepared. Helen stayed with me and we never slept. The next morning he was still alive. The Doctor told me that as they were rushing him to surgery he died. He had heart failure and he was bleeding to death. After two days he started to blow up. Apparently he used every ounce of his type blood in Lismore and they sent for more in Brisbane. In the meantime they couldn’t stop him blowing up. They opened him up and they found a bit of his bowel had been knocked around in surgery. They left him open because he was so swollen all over he couldn’t breathe. They left him open for 13 days in an induced coma. Eventually they couldn’t sew him back together so for all those years since he has lived in an abdominal belt /binder.
The head doctor told us John had gone into toxic shock and once again I was told he won’t survive the night. I asked if they were ever wrong and I wasn’t being facetious. She said yes. We called for more prayers and we had so many people praying for him. He was alive the next morning. It was a long battle. He caught every bug that was going. After a long time the doctors came to me and said they thought he was going to be one of the very rare survivors of an Aneurism and they called him the miracle man. He was known as that for many years. The photo I am holding is him 4 months after he got out of hospital. Look how beautiful he is. They said he would have nightmares because of all the drugs he had been on but he never had one. He was such a unique person.
We have a son Colin who lives in Sydney and our daughter Suzanne in London. We just had twin grandchildren and our first grandchild is Coco.
When I turned 90 I wanted to wear something different to my party so I found my Wonder Woman costume and I had to take it in because I had lost weight.
John and I have been Vegetarians since 1951. We have lived on plant foods and lentils, etc. We don’t eat fish either because of the Mercury content. There is some wonderful Vegetarian and Vegan recipes. We grew up in mining towns and you ate everything you were given but when we married John and I went on our Vegetarian diet. He stuck to it and never ever compromised. The Mediterranean diet is better for you.
There is a verse in the Bible – ‘As water reflects the face so ones life reflects the heart.’ In all the years I knew John he never spoke disparagingly about anyone. He only saw the good in everybody. He was the most beautiful Christian man in the true sense of the word. We were married for 67 years. He passed away on the 3rd December 2017 and I miss him so much.”