Tonight I received a very special phone call.

Tristan and Blaine were driving down south for a holiday with their little family. Blaine called me while they were driving, and said she had someone who wanted to talk to me. Then I heard, in Tom’s little voice,

“Hello Grandma”

Now the reason that this brought tears to my cheeks was that he’d never been able to say “Grandma'”. For months I’d been “Guargum”. Then last week I was “Grandbum”, which Rob had given me lots of hard times about, of course!

After we’d finished on the phone I raced out to the loungeroom and told Rob:-)

Rob has a story from a satyrical look at the hospital scene, of a hospital wing where patients are put when there is nothing else that can be done for them. In this story, a particular hospital has such a wing built to house the mother of the superintendent. His name was Zock, so the wing became the Wing of Zock.

Today I had to take Mum back to hospital, and the ward where they put her was for just such patients. As usual I stayed with her until all the doctors had seen her and worked out her care, and all the nurses had done what they needed to do, and her meals were ordered, and all her things were put where she could find them. It’s hard accepting that she’s getting beyond healing, but the nurses here are so caring and thoughtful that I know she’ll be taken care of until she’s over this particular crisis.

I’m leaving for UK in just over a week, so Fi will come from Tasmania for a week and stay at our place and see over Mum. She’s very good the way she does that:-)

As I pressed the keys of the EFTPOS machine, I realised this was the last time I would be paying a bill at this vet’s. I had brought all our cat things along – flea treatment, warm rugs, cat basket and toys – to give to the vet to use for living pets.

Last Saturday we had visited to have our old cat Mittens put to sleep – she was too sick to cure and too sick to go on. SInce We’d had to have Tiger out to sleep about 6 weeks ago, Mittens had at first been happy to be the centre of attention, then confused that Tiger was not around, then just got sadder and sadder…Their story is in the documents in the Campbell Capers section on the right.

This vet has treated all our pets since 1975 – all of them cats except for Sally.

* Zachy who we found after our first cat, Tiger, was run over;

* Sally who came to us as a puppy after Zachy disappeared when Elwyn was a baby. Rob and Jeanette went out to buy a goldfish and came home with a puppy! It was the last thing I needed with a baby in the house, but she became a dear friend and we loved going for walks together until she died of leukemia when she was 7;

* Sifa and Difa – sisters who came to us from Elwyn’s teeball coach;

* Tigger who Jeanette found at a model railway in the southwest after Difa was run over – the runt of the litter who we realised was deaf when she too was run over when still a kitten;

* Mittens who Jeanette found as a sick kitten at the cats’ refuge home and nursed back to health;

* Tiger who found Rob and I in King’s Park on a morning walk and came home with us. As we had Sifa and Mittens at the time we thought it best for Tiger to go to the vet’s as the practice cat, but when SIfa was run over some months later we asked the vet if we could take Tiger home and that began a cat friendship between Tiger and Mittens that lasted for 18 years. It ended in June this year when Tiger was put to sleep.

So tonight, for the first time in our 36 years of marriage, Rob and I are not responsible for any pets.

It’s very strange…

Judy left Perth today.

She arrived in Perth on 29th June and stayed with us until 8th August, when she flew to Sydney to stay with her brother John and wife Robyn. It was good having her in the house, and I realised in this proximity that a lot of my mannerisms and ways are very like hers.

She came back to Perth on 20th July and stayed with Helen and various friends, then came back to us on the 31st for the last couple of days before flying back to UK. Tristan, Blaine, Tom and Thea joined us for dinner that night to say farewell, and Tom dragged Judy into the lounge room to read his then-favourite book “The Butter Battle Book”. We have a delightful photo of them both, Judy in her chair and Tom in Mittens’ chair.

Last night it was just Judy, Rob and I, with Mittens who loved Judy. The chair that Judy made her own while she was with us was next to Mittens’ chair, so they shared lots of chats and pats.

And at lunch-time today we took Judy to the airport, helped her get her luggage into the system, and said farewell.

Until we see her in UK in September.

This morning there must have been something special in the air, or an alignment of the planets, or something.

At the beginning of our walk, a semi-circle of magpies stood before Rob and I  and sang to us, their heads back to make as much sound as possible.

A flock of black cockatoos called and fed in a big old gum tree – we usually only see them out in the bush because, courtesy of our greedy ways of being with the earth, they are now endangered.

And an osprey called, then flew over and around us, looking for a morning snack.

With the early morning sun shining, the first of the spring flowers peeping out and lots of birds enjoying the morning, it was a lovely start to our day.