First diagnosis (6)

Remembering facts and figures has always been a strong point of mine. My mum has always said that I am quiet unless I have something real to say and when I say it, it is said with conviction. Most of my work colleagues think that I am the clown and to some extent they are right......It's a good charade.....
It was December 2007, We left in the late afternoon for home with trailer in tow. I drove the 13 hours with limited stops. Ripped tarps and a deluge of rain in Sydney could not stop me getting to home. All the while I was thinking, "What's he going to be like ?, Is he going to be the same ?"
Mum had already told me that he had lost alot of weight and would sleep most of the day. He would sit for only short periods because he could not get comfortable..........This really sucked

We arrived at 3 am. All we could do was leave the car in the driveway and fall into bed.....I don't think I slept alot.

I remember thinking when I first saw him, that he looked like a skeleton. He had lost weight, he looked dishevelled and he appeared distant. Still, he was trying to be his same old self. Yet he was slower. It was like everything he did took thought and focus......

The house was in desperate need of some TLC. All I could do on this trip was hang new curtains, replace a fly screen and door handle and the time was gone.........

We left 24 hours later for Queensland........

Before I left mum had the talk with me..She was worried and upset about it all. Why shouldn't she be. This was her husband, the man she had married, had been with for 27 years, and he was going to leave her in the not too distant future. "I need to know what's going to happen ?"
Fuck, I didn't know. How was I suppose to know? I had friends that had died, but not my old man.....When the time comes I will be there. It was true, my life was about to get more complicated and it needed to be. These were my family, the people who had supported me through thick and thin.....I would be there for them. I had to be!