Are you from Queensland?
I always felt that it was a bit ironic that Jade and I flew to Melbourne so that we could go to Julie-Ann’s funeral, given that she died as a result of injuries sustained in a plane crash.
But we did.
We’re on a a plane right now, on our way home, at the end of what seems like an epic journey. In many ways.
After the crash, and Jacinda’s death, I had thought that next year I would like to go to Nhill for my holidays, to meet Julie-Ann, since she would hopefully be recovered by then.
After hearing the shocking news that Julie-Ann had then died too, on 29th August, it did occur to me that it would be nice if I could go to her funeral, but it also seemed like that would be a total impossibility.
Then the DUSTers stepped in. Emma posted a thread about Getting Mel to Nhill. People were all wonderful. Some offered actual physical help, some donated money, and the whole team was wonderful at being a team. It became a real team event, with a trip eventuating that saw many people actively participating in getting us there.
Lisa and Allan, Jade’s in-laws agreed to take her children for the duration of the trip.
Neil drove us to the airport and will be picking us up again tonight.
My niece Renee and her mum Michele met Jade and I at Melbourne airport and spent the afternoon with us, having lunch, and reminiscing and catching up on eighteen years worth of missing out on shared lives.
Tiger, tiger...
After leaving them we got a cab to Robyn‘s house, in Sunbury. The cab driver was quite impressed. We were too. A long gravel drive leads up to a beautifully comfortable home, an the middle of gorgeous native gardens that are starting to establish themselves amongst the huge indigenous gums. Robyn had given me details of where to go and show to find a key and which door it opened, and how to go though the “airlock” gates to prevent her smart dogs from escaping. Particularly Jack. Jack and Ellie are Jack Russell terriers, and both very cute, very friendly, and very cheeky. Particularly Jack.
Robyn's garden
We took our bags inside and got some water, then I got my camera and we went for a walk around the garden. I took photos of some of the lovely plants. The dogs played with us for a bit, but then they gave up on us - they went back into the warm house. We wandered around the garden a bit more, and even spotted a rabbit, which was exciting for us since we don’t have rabbits in Queensland. My camera batteries had gone flat, so we went back inside and sat down with our iPads and our glasses of water.
Jack sat on Jade's lap.
The dogs came and sat on our laps for a bit, and then disappeared. Jade spotted them out in the garden, and Jack was messing with something on the ground and Ellie was trying to help, so she went out to check on them. As soon as he realised she was coming he picked it up and ran off with it. It was a double mars bar. He’d been trying to get the paper off. Now that Jade was after him though, he was off, and eating and running - determined to eat the whole mars bar before Ellie, Jade or me caught him. I’d gone out too when I saw Jade gesturing madly at me. We ran all around, throwing balls, and calling him, and even calling Ellie, to distract him long enough that he’d either drop it or we’d be able to catch him. He ate the whole thing. Jade and I were laughing so much that it even seemed funny when Jade said “What if he dies? How on earth would we tell Robyn that we’d killed her dog!?”
a double mars bar
Once we went back inside and he seemed ok (and quite eager to walk on the dining table even though we told him we seriously doubted that he was allowed to do that) we sent Robyn a text message asking if Jack usually eats chocolate and if it affects him. She replied that no he doesn’t but that he doesn’t have any bad reaction to it, why, has he been misbehaving?
I sent her another message back saying that he’d been really helpful in unpacking Jade’s bag and getting rid of a double mars bar for her.
Robyn replied that he was a naughty dog and that she’d forgotten to warn us that he like to steal sexy undies too.
Robyn and her husband Stuart arrived home from the footy, and got a lovely dinner ready, which we all enjoyed, we chatted for a bit, went into the family room and relaxed for a bit, posted Facebook status updates, and then went to bed ready for our early start in the morning.
In the morning we weren’t too rushed, we planned to leave at 7:15.
Jack decided to delay that a bit, and helped himself to a couple of things out of my suitcase, which then resulted in more chasing around the garden. This time he’d taken a little snack container I had, and a gift I’d made for Liz. Thankfully neither were damaged before we were able to retrieve them.
We set off for Rachel‘s house in Ballarat, where we were to meet up with Liz and Graeme. Rachel had made us a wonderful morning tea - a chocolate cake, and some vanilla crescents. We all enjoyed our snack and cuppa, and then loaded our stuff up into the back of Graeme’s truck, and headed off towards Nhill. We stopped for a short break and toilet stop at Stawell, had apples, and cheese and crackers, before continuing on our way.
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We reached Nhill in plenty of time to check in at the Halfway Motel (who kindly donated the rooms for the night in honour of Julie-Ann,) where I was asked “Are you from Queensland?” then she gave me the keys to two rooms, where we quickly got changed, and then made our way to Len’s house. I want to call it Julie-Ann’s house, but can I do that now?
Meeting her family was a bit emotional. The first person to realize who we were was Shirley, Len’s sister. “Melanie?” she asked. I said that I was, and she introduced herself. We’d become acquainted in the previous couple of weeks on Facebook. We hugged, and I started to cry. She found Len and introduced us. More hugs and more crying. Len seemed amazingly calm, and felt amazingly strong for one who’d lost his wife and his daughter. He seems like a really lovely man. He showed us Julie’s office, where all of her jewellery was on display, as well as other things on her walls and so on. It was a lovely space. It would have been wonderful to work in. “Are you from Queensland?”, a lady asked me. She was the image of Nancy, my mother in law. Yes, I told her. “I’m Julie’s mother.” More hugging and more crying. I don’t remember who else I met there before we headed off to the church.
There were quite a few people outside the church. A girl- a woman came up to me and asked “Are you from Queensland?” she was Julie’s sister, Heather. More hugs, more crying. I don’t know how many people asked me that yesterday afternoon - “Are you from Queensland?” I think that question will forever be associated with our trip to Julie-Ann’s funeral - for all four of us.
After the service we went out the back to the church hall and had a cuppa and something to eat, which was a sort of late lunch. The interment was private, but we were invited back to the house with the family afterwards. We drove through the town before going back to the house. I’m not sure how many times we were asked, but again, we were asked “Are you from Queensland?” We all felt like we were honored guests, and we all even sat in a reserved pew in the church. We made sure that everyone knew that it was the DUST team who had sent us there and we were not just there for ourselves, but as representatives of the team, all of who’d sent their best wishes.
Many people read the book that Jade and I had compiled of the messages that accompanied the donations the team received for our Julie-Ann fund. I hope that it gave those who were closest to Julie-Ann a sense of just what sort of impact she had made on people from all over the country, and from all over the world. We will be creating a downloadable version of this book for anyone who’d like to read it, and it will be linked from that page, so please check back.
end of part one…. to be continued.