In a previous blog I reflected on the challenges that 2021 posed. It was indeed the hardest year of my life. It seems a confluence of activities formed that pcaused incredible pressure. None of the issues themselves would normally have been difficult. When combined together however it was huge pressure and not one of them identifably significant. How did I cope? Only God knows.
In photos and text I comment on my year month by month.
January saw us returning to Sydney after spending most of December and January at Bangalow. Christmas saw us and our daughter at Bangalow at our son’s house while he, his wife and grandson #4 were in hospital following a bone marrow transfusion (BMT). Maintaining their house and Christmas with our three other kids and four other grandsons was a pleasant time. Byron Bay is only 10 minutes so the beach and lighthouse were visited regularly. As we were allowed we visited Brisbane and had coffee with our son.
BMT requires the recipient to be isolated in a hospital room for months. His parents rotated between themsleves to be in the room 24/7. How grandson#5 coped for three months is beyond me.
26 January, I left for Sydney and work accompanied by their dog who was spending the time before they returned.
February was a fairly normal month. Work, a work conference but the additional responsibility was as a nominator for the replacement of our senior minister at church. This task entailed headhunting Anglican Ministers our group of 5 thought may be suitable. It turned out to be a massive job. There was a night at the theatre in Wollongong and a staff conference at the Wollongong Surf Leisure Resort. I did the BBQ. We had German visitors who stayed a weekend with us. Hannah and Ina were Bible College students who I met through extended family. Hannah is from near Frankfurt where my mother came from. A weekend with visitors allowed us to visit the Southern Highlands and Illawarra.
I also completed an exam in the PTC course Early Church History. Only 83% but there was a lot in it.
As in February, it was good to be catching the train to work. There was some normaility even though the trains were empty. COVID has certainly changed people’s preparedness to work physically onsite. Our office barely had more than a few people coming in from January to March. Zoom was the order of the day.
March saw me continuing to travel to work. Working from home there were days where I did not leave home, not even for a walk. I forgot to go out, unlike 2020 when methodically I would wlk to the beach for time out at lunchtime.
Walking and podcasts were the two new activities I started during COVID. I also started the Moore College Preliminary Theologcal Certificate in August 2020.
The Archbishop retired this month so there was a farewell at work for him. Also a service at St Andrews Cathedral on 26 March to farewell him. Two days later I preached at Fairfield Anglican Church. This has a bit of history as my father’s funeral was taken by the then minister of this church in 1970 when I was 15yo. There were people who still remembered him. I remembered him as a very kind man who came and visited us in our grief. I have never forgotten that time he spent with our family.
April 1 saw us attend Hamilton after seeing it in London in 2019. It was possibly better than the London show. We stayed in Sydney overnight on the road north to Bangalow.
Back in Brisbane in to see our grandson for his 5th birthday. We managed to get across the closed border with a clown suit to try and cheer him up. Sadly he was frightened of me.
The rest of April was pretty much routine with going work, studying the PTC and enjoying freedoms post COVID. Church work now as a warden in addition to being a nominator added to my already busy year.
May was a huge month. Grandson#5 ended up with complications from his BMT after coming home earlier in the month. He and his parents had been in Brisbane since August 2020 so nine long months in Brisbane and then only two weekends at home before he was back in hospital.
The rest of May included my graduation in 1st year PTC and an election synod where I awas able to vote for the new Archbishop. A great privilege. Our youngest daughter announced her engagement and I was actually asked by her beau if he could marry her. They are a great match. Linda had a significant birthday which was celebrated with a small group of close friends a tthe Kirribilli Club.
June was a busy month. A trip to Brisbane for a week where I was able to help by sleeping overnight at the hospital and give sgrandson#4’s parents a night off.
I went to see Hamilton again. I am addicted.
Our youngest daughter was married on 19 June, a week before the lockdown. Dorrigo was freezing but it was a superb location and a beautiful wedding. Afterwards we had a holiday near Byron which had been booked months prior and were unable to get a refund..
NSW went into lockdown while we were on holidays at Byron. We arranged with my son to remain at their home in Bangalow looking after it till they were able to return. It turned out they could not come home till January 2022 so I worked from Bangalow. No one and I mean no one came to our office till late October. Lockdown 2021 was tougher than 2020 but in Bangalow apart from six weeks we had relative freedom.
Lockdown at Bangalow meant visits to Byron Bay and walks up to the lighthouse. I saw whales for the first time off Cape Byro
Working from Bangalow was much easier than being in Sydney which had a harder and harsher lockdown than in 2020. It was audit time at work and our accountant got Delta Covid and was exteremely sick and hospitalised. He survived but it meant challenges and delays.
No one went to the office at all from June. Last year I was in regularly but Delta had everyone running for cover. No one back till October. Working from home was a blessing with all the other stuff I had going on.
October saw us in Brisbane for a weekend with our grandson#5 and his parents after a devastating September where he was readmitted after a seizure and on life support for a week.
We saw our son and other grandkids sporadically who also live in Bangalow. We went bowling and did other things with them when allowed to. The lockdown in Banglow was a much easier experience than Sydney.
Church work was ongoing and it was nothing to spend the day in front of Zoom and have evening meeting a few times a week related to building replaceemnt, my role as warden and as a nominator (recruiting a new senior minister)
As the lockdown was ending in Sydney we planned a trip to Wollongong to check out our home and other things. Given my impending retirement I planned a visit to a new GP in Wollongong as my GP for the last nine years is in Sydney CBD. The trip bag was with my son’s dog, whose time in foster care came to an end as the foster carers had a dog themselves.
I had planned to have November off, but as the CEO was asked to travel at short notice to Africa I stayed on. In any case preparing for my replacement took a lot of work. So a lot of work was done planning for her start and documenting my role, much of which was in my head. As it turns out my thoughts of a month off ere wishful thinking. It was actually very busy.
The result of my GP visit was a new GP and some blood tests and an expectation I would see him when needed again. However back in Bangalow a few days later he rang me. Never have I had a GP call. He wanted to refer me to a haematologist as my white cells were low. As I wasn’t back in Wollongong till December we agreed to repeat the tests a few weeks later and see how it went.
Never having been to Accident and Emergency in my life, December opened with a visit to A&E at Lismore on 1 December and Wollongong on 5 December after blood tests showed no white blood cells. The impression from doctors was that I should be critically ill with almost no white cells – neutropenia was the diagnosis. A delay to my visit to Adelaide while I had a bone marrow biopsy and various other tests. At no time was I sick -I felt fine but was rattled. I ended up seeing a haematologist (Feb 2022) and after a myriad of tests it is assumed I had an asymptomatic virus.
Lismore Base A&E 1 December.
December saw me in Sydney to do a handover with my replacement and attend a farewell. It was held for the whole floor and I was one of four being farewelled. Virginia from Anglican Aid had an extra year on me, Rob had five and Jo was retiring after twenty years. Tim Swan gave one of the best farewell speeches for me. It was fantatstic and did take the mickey out of me. Lots of laughter.
I arrived in Adelaide after borders opened to visit our eldest daughter and grandson #5.
These are just examples of the frenetic pace of 2021. If it were not for COVID I could not have coped. The lockdowns actually freed up a lot of time and increased my capacity. The biggest pressure at the end was preparing for my replacement, spending a week with her and ensuring we had as much in systems developed as possible to ensure the agency could continue as it grew.
I had three COVID tests in the week prior to Christmas and Christmas Day was a non event as we planned to head to Brisbane, preparing to assist with care for our grandson as his mother was booked for a caesareaan on 29 December. So after church we spent a few hours at the COVID testing clinic at Wollongong hospital to ensure we could get into Queensland. Healthy grandson #6 was safely delivered providing a nice end to 2021.
Farewell 2021. A busy but good year.
AfricaEddie 