AFTER THE FUNERAL...

Us girls had a big week after Dad's funeral.  Whilst all our husbands went home and back to work, Jude and I stayed on down at Dad's place and Lea joined us each day, as we tried to clean out a lot of the stuff out of the house...

I didn't quite realize just how ready Dad was to leave this earth,  My sister Lea had been saying to us for some time, that Dad had been telling her that he wouldn't be around for much longer and she had continued to tell him that she had a few good years in him yet....

When we got into Dad's room, his cupboard was almost bare... He had got rid of all his clothes except for two pairs of shorts, 3 Polo Shirts, 2 belts, 2 pairs of trousers, a suit jacket and 3 good long sleeve shirts and 1 pair of dress shoes and 2 pairs of joggers.  The rest he had given away...

The drawer beside his bed had a few treasured letters and cards from and to Mum which we had to keep but the rest of the drawers in his room were empty.

He had obviously been through his office and filing cabinets and got rid of most of the stuff in there as well as they used to be full as with paper work.

However, the things from Mum were still in the house,   all the linen and blankets, all the kitchen utensils etc.   These were things my youngest sister had wanted to go through with him several times to get rid of and he wasn't able to do it.  They all belongs to his precious Margaret and he wasn't able to part with them, even though he knows it must be done...

A friend of Lea's spent a day helping us also, and we were able to bag up a heap of stuff to send to Lifeline and the Salvo's, and we had a massive trailer load of goods and furniture that we sent to the Dump..

We are so thankful to Dad's good friend Col Webber who came to our rescue and filled the back of his ute with it and took it to the dump for us...

 On our last full day on the coast, these beautiful folk invited us around to have lunch with them also...
They have a beautiful home with a view to die for and we enjoyed a lovely afternoon sitting on their verandah overlooking the coast and mountains...

I am so thankful to these friends of Dad's.  They have been wonderful friends to my Dad for over 40 years and particularly in the last 8 years since Mum has passed away and visited Dad weekly when they have been around... They were truly loyal and wonderful friends to my Dad and I am so grateful that he had people like this in his life....

Heather's quiet spot on their top verandah.  What a view she enjoys each morning as she sits out here with her cuppa to have some quiet time...

Views out to the Ocean

Views out to the mountains

Their pool although since the kids have left home it doesn't get used quite as much anymore...

The following morning Jude and I were up early, mopped the house out, and finished tidying and were all ready to leave when Lea arrived to pick up up around 11am.  Even though we were a little nervous about it, Jude and I had decided to catch the tilt train home to save our poor husbands having the long drive to pick us both up.

Homeward bound on the tilt train...

 We were all spaced out with vacant seats in front us of and behind up and across the aisle from us.  All part of the social distancing laws that the Government has put in place whilst this Pandemic is affecting the world...

 As Jude and I were sisters and had been living in the save house together for the past few weeks we were allowed to sit together.  She hopped off the train in Bundaberg and then I had the seat to myself for the last three hours home...

Spent the remainder of the trip doing puzzles in the back of the magazines..

Crossing the Burnett River in Bundaberg..

 It was a bit hard leaving the house this morning,, We still have quite a bit more we need and want to do, although we do plan to come back for the Easter holidays to tackle the rest of the packing...
On the otherhand,  I was keen to get home to Steve,  I think when your life and the world is in turmoil, you just want to be close to the ones you love.  Nothing in life is guaranteed.  Thankfully we don't that ahead of time.  12 months ago, who could have predicted life would be like this now....

I needed to get back home, as I only had four days left at work before I was due to retire and there was still so much more I needed to do.  I don't think I am even ready for that to happen yet.....

I am finding it hard to get my head around the fact that Dad is gone and the world has gone crazy... Everything has changed in the space of a couple of weeks and by the sound of it, we can expect these daily changes to continue for the foreseeable future.  Not sure I am coping too well with it all at the moment....