Saying goodbye

On November 30th, around 7:20pm Singapore time, Mum phoned to tell me that Dad had passed away that night, around 3 hours earlier. Dad had Alzheimer's diagnosed in 1998 and for the past 5 years, he had been living in a nursing home. In some ways it wasn't a shock - we had expected the news for years, but the reality was that it still did rock me a bit. That Monday night was spent planning our trip back to Adelaide. At first, I suggested to Gary that I go out on Thursday night with the 2 kids and that he join me on the weekend. Gary then suggested that I go with just Tara and he come along 2 days later with Alex. This is what we did in the end. It was actually a really good way to go and although it was quite expensive to fly out for a short time, I'm really glad we did all go. In a really short time we managed to catch up with lots of family and friends.

The funeral service was a really fitting tribute to Dad. There were a lot of people there and all of the family were able to be there. I know that Dad would have been very happy with it. The burial was at the cemetery and Alex enjoyed throwing rose petals on to Poppa's coffin and saying "Bye Bye Poppa". Tara enjoyed struggling with me continuously trying to yank her hat off. Alex then had a blast chasing his cousins around at the rooms after the burial where we had a light lunch.

My brother John did the eulogy for Dad. It was really lovely and I asked him if I could post a copy of it here. Here's a link to it:

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/19885987/?key=MjAyMTFhNDIt&pass=YThhNS00Yzk2


Here's the last photo I have of Dad. It was taken on July 5th, a week before we left Adelaide.



On the Friday before Dad's funeral, Mum had arranged for me to go to see Dad. In his coffin, he looked really peaceful, and a lot better than he does in the image above. I'm really grateful that he is finally at peace. He was a wonderful father to me and I am privileged to have had such a great Dad.

Dad, I love you and will miss you but am very glad you are now at rest. xx