It was Monday morning and Michael had said his goodbyes the night before and was now flying home. I was up at 6am like every other morning and had showered and eaten breakfast.
My Mum who usually arrived around lunchtime unexpectedly walked through the door around 8am. She'd dropped my aunt at work and figured she may as well stop in and see us since she was just around the corner. It was a lovely surprise and we settled down to have a chat as the morning ward routine went on around us and Cameron slept.
The ward clerk popped in and told me I had a phone call. It was odd to be getting a call so early in the day but I didn't think anything of it. I walked across the hall and picked up the phone to find our friend from home on the other end.
"Hi"
"Jane - I just went around to your home to drop off your trailer and there is a removal truck parked out the front and they are emptying your unit."
"What!?!?! Why?"
"I don't know."
"But Michael is flying home, he doesn't have anything, you've got to stop them."
As you can imagine that was not the conversation I was expecting to have. The company had decided that since we would not be returning to live in town Michael no longer qualified for married accommodation and he was being moved into single accommodation. Michael had had some discussion with the company but nothing suggested they were going to move so quickly and just pack us up.
Michael only had an overnight bag with him and we still had a bird and two cats living in the unit. We hadn't managed to organize when and how we would move, we thought that was our decision and when we knew what was happening with Cameron we would then organize our lives around his plans.
Apparently we thought wrong.
I asked our friend to go and stop the packers and to guard our bedroom so when Michael landed in an hours time he could get his clothes and everything else he needed. I walked back into our room in shock and my Mum saw immediately that I was upset. The moment I tried to explain what was happening I collapsed in tears.
I was beside myself with grief. How could they do this to us? I had been having a recurring dream and they had just shattered my dream. I was going to wake up and be in my bed in our unit and none of this nightmare had ever happened. That dream was what I hung onto every night when I lay in my bed. I would lay there and will my dream to come true.
My Mum was trying to make sense of what was going on, be furious and comfort me all at the same time. The Nurse Manager couldn't avoid my distress from her office opposite our room and immediately came in to see what was wrong. As I cried and cried she ushered Mum and I into the nurses break room assuring me she would watch Cameron but we needed to go somewhere private because pretty soon she was going to be crying with me.
We went into the empty room, sat down and tried to make sense of the situation between non stop tears. I think this let me cry some of the other tears I had been holding back because I was being strong. I couldn't be strong anymore.
The Nurse Manager came into see how I was coping and she gave me some very wise advice. "You need to go home and say goodbye." Yes, that was exactly what I needed to do and while I was there I could clean out my desk at work and try to make sense of the whole nightmare that my life had become.
There was nothing I could do but sit there and hope Michael got the message to go home immediately. When he landed and found out what was happening he went home to find the packers still packing and our friend waiting for him. He rang me and between the two of us we figured out what he needed to rescue before the packers packed it all.
The next job was to organize a flight for me to fly home first thing in the morning but what about Cameron?
My Mum who usually arrived around lunchtime unexpectedly walked through the door around 8am. She'd dropped my aunt at work and figured she may as well stop in and see us since she was just around the corner. It was a lovely surprise and we settled down to have a chat as the morning ward routine went on around us and Cameron slept.
The ward clerk popped in and told me I had a phone call. It was odd to be getting a call so early in the day but I didn't think anything of it. I walked across the hall and picked up the phone to find our friend from home on the other end.
"Hi"
"Jane - I just went around to your home to drop off your trailer and there is a removal truck parked out the front and they are emptying your unit."
"What!?!?! Why?"
"I don't know."
"But Michael is flying home, he doesn't have anything, you've got to stop them."
As you can imagine that was not the conversation I was expecting to have. The company had decided that since we would not be returning to live in town Michael no longer qualified for married accommodation and he was being moved into single accommodation. Michael had had some discussion with the company but nothing suggested they were going to move so quickly and just pack us up.
Michael only had an overnight bag with him and we still had a bird and two cats living in the unit. We hadn't managed to organize when and how we would move, we thought that was our decision and when we knew what was happening with Cameron we would then organize our lives around his plans.
Apparently we thought wrong.
I asked our friend to go and stop the packers and to guard our bedroom so when Michael landed in an hours time he could get his clothes and everything else he needed. I walked back into our room in shock and my Mum saw immediately that I was upset. The moment I tried to explain what was happening I collapsed in tears.
I was beside myself with grief. How could they do this to us? I had been having a recurring dream and they had just shattered my dream. I was going to wake up and be in my bed in our unit and none of this nightmare had ever happened. That dream was what I hung onto every night when I lay in my bed. I would lay there and will my dream to come true.
My Mum was trying to make sense of what was going on, be furious and comfort me all at the same time. The Nurse Manager couldn't avoid my distress from her office opposite our room and immediately came in to see what was wrong. As I cried and cried she ushered Mum and I into the nurses break room assuring me she would watch Cameron but we needed to go somewhere private because pretty soon she was going to be crying with me.
We went into the empty room, sat down and tried to make sense of the situation between non stop tears. I think this let me cry some of the other tears I had been holding back because I was being strong. I couldn't be strong anymore.
The Nurse Manager came into see how I was coping and she gave me some very wise advice. "You need to go home and say goodbye." Yes, that was exactly what I needed to do and while I was there I could clean out my desk at work and try to make sense of the whole nightmare that my life had become.
There was nothing I could do but sit there and hope Michael got the message to go home immediately. When he landed and found out what was happening he went home to find the packers still packing and our friend waiting for him. He rang me and between the two of us we figured out what he needed to rescue before the packers packed it all.
The next job was to organize a flight for me to fly home first thing in the morning but what about Cameron?
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