Desert Air - 52. DA Ch 52 - Out of Hospital

Taking the car like I do when visiting Mum on my own, I found a parking space fairly close to the hospital, and I went up to collect Mum, who was dressed and patiently waiting for me, when I arrived at 8.30 am.

We had to wait for a heap of paperwork to be finalised, and once they were all signed and dated, I followed the nurse who pushed Mum’s wheelchair to the exit closest to were I parked the car, and once in the car, we headed back towards the house.

We need to stop and do some shopping dear, as I have no clothes apart from what I am wearing now,” Mum announced, “Oh, yes of course, I hadn’t thought of that sorry. Where too?” I replied, “Turn left at the end of this road, we will go to Claremont, that is closest,” Mum replied.

After an exhausting two hours of shopping, with the help of the wheel chair that I had leased from the hospital, we finally headed back to the house, and Mum was smiling with all the new clothes she was wearing and the rest in all the bags.

“Where did Pa and Auggie live in Perth?” I asked out of interest as we went down the underpass under the rail line, “Turn left and I will show you,” Mum replied, so I turned left onto Claremont Crescent, and we followed it to the end, where Mum instructed me to turn left again, onto Curtin Avenue, and right onto Eric Street.

“When you see the IGA on the right, turn left just after the store and slow right down, I think it was number 146 Broome Street, close to the intersection,” Mum said to me. “Hey that is the IGA store that Mary and I went, to get groceries on our first day down here,” I said when I saw the familiar building, as I slowed and turned left as instructed, and stopped outside number 146, which has a very wide street reserve, and a single small gate for people to get in but no driveway.

“It is just how I remember it, the garage is down a laneway out the back if I remember right, I have no idea who owns it now, Dad arranged all of that when Pa and Auggie passed away. My, how lovely the garden looks, the current owners have done a wonderful job of the garden,” Mum said to me, as we saw a lady coming out of the front garden and she approached our vehicle.

“Can I help you with anything?” the lady asked us, “I am sorry to be a nuisance dear, this was my childhood home, and I have been away so long, that I thought I would get my son to drive past to show it to him, while we are down from up north,” Mum explained to the lady.

“Well we don’t own the house, we have been renting it for the past twelve years, it is a grand old house and I feel blessed to bring up my children in it,” the lady said, “Oh, I see, well I am pleased to see that you are looking after the front garden so well, it looks just like how I remember it,” Mum said.

“Well the real estate agent told us when we first took up renting it, that it is owned by an elderly couple who moved away to be closer to family, and we are only the second family to live in the house since they moved, and that it is still owned by that family,” the lady said.

“By any chance, do you know the name of the family that own the house?” I asked, “Yes, she did tell me, but that was years ago now. I suggest that you go and speak to the agents, they will be able to tell you,” the lady said, and she gave us the address of the real estate agents, who are located at the nearby shopping centre.

Mum was looking tired so we headed back to the house, where the family mob where happy to see Mum again, “Did you make the changes?” I asked Mary, after getting Mum into the wheelchair, “Yes big brother, all is done,” Mary replied, and we headed inside, where I suggested to Mum that we have a bit of a rest until lunch time, which she agreed on.

Once Mum was settled into the master bedroom, Mary and I retrieved all of Mum’s shopping, while the others played in the back yard, where Mum was less likely to hear them. The funeral was set for the day after tomorrow, and she came out just before 1 pm, just as everyone else was finishing lunch.

“We wanted you to have as much rest as possible, so we didn’t wake you,” Mary said to Mum as she shuffled to the dining table. “This is a nice house; did you say Hedley and Joyce own this?” Mum asked, “Yes, that is correct, I insisted on paying for any utility costs while we are here,” I replied, “Who is looking after your practice in Kununurra?” Mum asked.

“Auggie Hunter is running the Kununurra clinic and Marcus is running the Derby clinic, and both are doing very well, according to their reports, when I call them,” I replied. “That is good to hear, I don’t want you missing out of business just because you are looking after me,” Mum said.

“That doesn’t matter, you and the kids are more important, if need be I would continue looking after you all for as long as it takes, and with them running the two clinics, I have income coming in to keep us going,” I replied.

Two days later when it came time to go to the funeral, a limo came to collect us all, and take us to the Karrakatta Cemetery for the funeral service. Much to our surprise, there was a platoon of SAS regiment men in dress uniform forming a guard of honour.

Mum was able to walk a lot better now, so with me supporting her, we walked from the limo to the chapel, where the guards snapped to attention and raised their weapons to form an arch, which we passed under, and recognising Captain Eccleston he gave a short nod of recognition to me, and I nodded back, and mouthed the words thankyou.

Moments after we reached our seats, the minister entered and the casket was brought in, not by members of the funeral home, but by the Army personnel, who placed it on the stands at the front, before exiting the chapel. It was difficult to not cry, especially when Mum, Mary and Julia crying while Rhodes and Wynn just had tears running down their faces.

As the service was coming to a conclusion, something occurred to me, what may happen, “Be prepared, there maybe some gunfire outside, a 12 gun salute from the Army,” I whispered loudly, so the whole family could hear me, and sure enough, I heard the order, and three rounds were fired from each of the guns, and I felt Mum jump a little each time the guns went off, as she clutched onto my arm.

And shortly after the gun salute, the casket moved towards a curtain and disappeared out of sight, before the minister approached us. “Thankyou for the service Reverend, it was very nice,” I said firstly and Mum nodded her head in agreement before softly crying into her handkerchief.

I led her towards the chapel door, where we were surprised to see Hedley and Joyce standing at the back row of the chapel, “We were not expecting you to be here, but thankyou for coming, please join us back at the house for some refreshments,” I said to them, before we continued outside, where the soldiers again snapped to attention.

Only four Army officers came to the house for the gathering after the service, along the minister, Hedley and Joyce, who we learnt have been staying in a hotel in the city for their short visit. Hedley said to me to take our time with grieving and not to rush back home too early, as everything is in good order, and we thanked them both for coming.

While I left Mary to look after Mum, I took Rhodes, Julia and Wynn on daily excursions to the art gallery, museum, the zoo, over to Rottnest Island, and regular trips to the beach. Christmas day was a very low key event for us this year, with the loss of Dad and Mum getting out of hospital just two days before Christmas. I also had to make a trip back to Karrakatta to collect Dad’s Urn, which I placed in a box stuffed with newspaper to keep it safe.

It was four days after the funeral that she had her final doctor’s appointment, and she was declared well enough to travel by air, which we were all very happy to hear, and that afternoon, I made a trip to the Jandakot Airport, to check on the plane, and make sure that it had been given a service as I had requested, so it was ready for the long trip back north.

Two days later with the house clean and our bags packed, we travelled in a taxi mini van to Jandakot, in the very early hours of daylight morning, and while Rhodes and I loaded up the luggage, Mum made sure everyone took their seats and were properly strapped in.

After doing my external checks, I entered the cockpit, with Rhodes sitting in the spare seat, and after doing all my checks, I taxied out of the hanger that I had leased, and stopped at the parking apron, to file my flight plan, and request permission to take off.

Once in the air, I headed south east as instructed, then changed direction to north-east for Kalgoorlie, our first stop of the trip. It was a three hour flight to Kalgoorlie, and once we had landed and parked, the family headed to the terminal for a rest break, while the plane was being refuelled.

Once we had all eaten and rested, which was a little under an hour; we were soon back in the air and now heading for the remote community of Warburton, which will take us 4 hours to complete the journey, and where we would stay overnight, at the roadhouse cabins that we had booked.

When we arrived in Warburton, it was a very hot afternoon, and we were thankful that a staff member from the roadhouse had come to collect us and take us to our accommodation. I had arranged for Avgas to be sent to Warburton, so I could refuel the plane, to get us to Riveren Station, which is a 4 ½ hour flight that we would do in the early morning.

For now, we settled into our accommodation, took turns at having a shower and changing into fresh clothes, before heading to the roadhouse restaurant for some dinner, as it had been a long day for everyone, especially for me being the only pilot.

While we were eating the Roadhouse manager approached out table. “Are you the gentleman flying the twin otter and who requested avgas?” he said to me, “I am, I do hope that the fuel has arrived, as I did order it nearly two weeks ago,” I replied.

“I am sorry, but there has been a mix up, the avgas fuel was sent to the next roadhouse, known as Warakurna, it is where the Giles Station is located, 210 kilometres north-east of here,” the man informed us.

“I see can I call this roadhouse to make sure that it is actually there?” I asked, “Yes sir it is, they telephoned me when they spotted the error this morning, as it had arrived late yesterday there,” the man replied.

“Well, it looks like we have one extra stop to make, and thankfully we have enough fuel to get there with 300 kms in reserves,” I said to my mum and siblings when the man left us to continue eating. After dinner we retired early as everyone was exhausted from the journey so far, and it didn’t take me long before I was fast asleep.

The next morning after a sleep in and a good breakfast, we packed our overnight bags, and we were transported back to the plane, where once again Rhodes helped with loading the bags, while I did all of the external checks, and we were soon in the air again, this time for 1 ½ hours till we arrived at the Giles airport, which is gravel and quite bumpy when we landed.

While the family went to the small roadhouse to get out of the sun and enjoy a cool drink, I assisted with the refuelling of the plane, making sure that a filter in the funnel was in place, to keep out any sand and grit that may damage the planes engines.