Telling My Story. Chapter Twenty Five*. 2020. Pt.3/3. 103/2020.
Well over a hundred three years ago ….I thought it was time, seeing I had a blog, to start writing my story. It was on advice from a blogging friend, now published author (her story is here) that I did. Then, for a long time I did not. Because cancer was diagnosed.
Nevertheless, I eventually returned to the story and now I am at...Chapter Twenty Five*. Part Three of Three.
So, in keeping with my ethical approach to all things, I am making the chapters about MY recollections to various changes in life for me, and us, and life as we knew it. I hope I can continue sharing the story without any intentionally negative or hurtful references to others who are in my life as friends and family members.
To read the earlier two parts of this Chapter go here for Part One (January, February, March & April) and here for Part Two (May, June, July & August).
WHAT A YEAR!ย
Let’s get on with the final part of Telling My Story….2020.
SEPTEMBER.
But first, here’s to the Dads in my life:

Father’s Day Collage
I did not expect to be continuing to be recovering from surgery but yes, that is so. I was treated at home for 3 weeks by a Wound Nurse who took care of checking the wound, changing the VAC machine that helped heal me and then, as I did so well, signed off so I could visit my GP’s Nurse three times a week. Gosh people. Life is good…hey!
- Check Up with ColoRectal Surgeon
- The equipment in my bedroom for the Nurse.
- How I got around for over 3 weeks. No showers but washes.
I could not drive (again) because of the machine and its attachment to me, so my dear husband (yet again!) drove me to Chris O’Brien Lifehouse for my 6 month head and neck cancer check with my surgeon.
It was the first time my husband had been back with me here since early 2018. Certainly COVID had made some differences in protocol but not to the great ambience we both felt with my head and neck surgeon Jonathan and his surgical assistant, Cate.
Here’s the story of that visit!
- After our COVID checks: Chris O’Brien Lifehouse.
- Cate fully examines my mouth and upper prosthesis
- Jonathan looks inside, feels around and checks out glands.
It’s always good to see my team. I love them! And the best part of that visit was when Jonathan said “See you in a year!” WHAT? Blown away. I am doing well!!
Mind you they had some fun at my expense with the VAC system I was carrying! Thanks to social media Cate knew about my surgeries. I was advised that my CT scan of chest and neck was fine and to go see my prosthodontist when I could. I did.

With My Prosthodontist: I was back in a few days with mouth pain, but with some anti-biotic treatment it went away!
- Visit to Westmead – prosthodontist check
- My mouth. Yes. It is.
- Always grateful for a safe trip to & from Sydney
- THIS team was the one who did the biopsy on my gums in May 2017. Love them.
- Me and my dentist. Together we keep my mouth well.
- Very very grateful for my teams
SPRING WEATHER & MEMORIES!
- Get your skin checked reminder.
- Beauty from my spring bulbs.
- Miss R has a birthday. Much older now!
- Love this richness in my pots.
- Another bulb surprise
- Masses of azaleas in Wyong Park
- Miss now 23 at Sydney Olympic Park. 20 years since Sydney Olympics.
- More thank you bundles to my doctors’ surgery.
- And, just like that, surf patrols are back.
OCTOBER.
What a special month!
October is special because we have a grandson’s birthday and my husband and I celebrate the anniversary of our meeting each October. Just sneaking into October, I was able to say “bye bye” to all wound care. On 6th October I was F R E E. The body, the doctors andย nurses, the VAC system and I had healed me. Hallelujah!
We had a school holiday trip to our son’s place on the outskirts of Sydney to celebrate an early birthday with H and listen to the stories and share much with R, E and M. We loved it.
- Morning Tea by Grandma
- Outside in the sun
- Grandma Is My Fave Role!
OUR HOLIDAY!
On 17th October 2020 we celebrated our fiftieth anniversary of meeting. Now, for the first time in over 5 years we planned a short trip to the north western city of Tamworth where we met. We set off on the Monday, venturing into the country roads we remembered so well and with shared driving the trip was most enjoyable.
The next day we went to the top of Oxley Lookout to take in the view of Tamworth and then drove the hour or so to my first school at Barraba. We had morning tea and did a small tour of the spots important to me. They were the house where I lived in 1970 and to the school where I taught.
The town itself was less active and we could understand that. Both of us were worn out too by some of the emotional memories that flooded back.
One was of where I gave birth to our daughter in 1971 and we realised that we had seen and done enough of the memory lane and came back to our most comfy house. Glad to have done this trip.
- Outside the club where we met. 17.10.1970.
- No entry this time to see my old classroom (first building)
- The house where I lived: teacher share house.
- The sign for Tamworth Base Hospital.
- The view of Tamworth and beyond
- North-west NSW
And back into our retired lives here on the Central Coast of NSW.
PHOTOS, FLOWERS, RIVER & MORE.
OCTOBER into NOVEMBER.ย
My improved physical health, fewer restrictions in NSW thanks to good COVID numbers meant I could be out and about more and enjoying what IS retirement now, post my head and neck cancer surgeries and treatments. But first, Beyond Five changed their name to Head and Neck Cancer Australia. Congratulations to them and I remain a very committed volunteer Ambassador into 2021.
- New Head & Neck Cancer Australia Cards & Info.
- My First Zoom Meeting: Board of HANCA.
I was also delighted to have these kind words written about me by Nadia Rosin CEO of Head and Neck Cancer Australia on the occasion of my great outcome at my September visit to my surgeon, Professor Jonathan Clark AM who is the Chair of Head and Neck Cancer Australia.
SNIPPETS & MEMORIES
- 50 years!
- Sth Curl Curl Pool after visiting Dad.
- Collage of visits to my Dad
- World Teacher’s Day tribute
- Some of these help me!
- “Always Was, Always Will Be”
- Jacaranda trees!
- Fave place for coffee & this
- Long Jetty visit. Awesome
- Post haircut
- Gorokan Lake from my hairdressers
- BACK to the beach for a walk
- Our much loved Real Estate Propery Manager
- My Blu Jay’s coffee collage
- My Family Home: completely changed!
- Nature at Long Jetty
- Wild Day at Norah Head
- Steps to Wyong Park.
- Not feeling 100% with sore mouth. Beach helps
- 50 Years: some pics of us.
Time To Renew My Photo Collage for the Blog and On Facebook.
NOVEMBER
- I remembered my parents’ wedding anniversary: they last celebrated together in 2006 for their Diamond (60th) Wedding Anniversary
- It got me thinking about “our” up coming Golden (50th) Wedding Anniversary in January 2021.
- So, then my thinking got me…interested in lots of Etsy, convincing my husband to go along with my plans (he said yes!) and then lots of in-person visits to so-called cheap shops – buying up golden type decorations as there was a bit about for Christmas…
- And finding places on Etsy which made amazing posters. I am going to save sharing these till the actual anniversary but let me tell you, there are clever people out there and how well they can make items for display for a special occasion
- My husband and I had fun too ‘getting the info’ we wanted to share: how many places we had lived in, how many cars…and the like.
- I also started getting more memories out that could prove useful for my version of the day when we celebrate.
- We settled on a family lunch here because the actual date ISย Saturday 23rd January and we will welcome our two adult kids, their kids and one partner of a grandchild. We will be a lunch party of 13. Our daughter is making the cake (to her dad’s likes) and we will put on a pretty easy cold lunch.
- Dad lent me the Golden Wedding Anniversary Scrapbook I made for him and Mum for 1996 to read over too. And the 60th one as well.
- After seeing Dad one time this month, I visited Uberkate Jewels and left my precious Ubercircles chain to have a very small circle added. I have it now and it is very special.
- Our 2 eldest granddaughters visited for a photo shoot of us for our 50th. What fun we had.
- I recalled the lovely day a year ago when I met my blogging friends to celebrate my 70th.
- On my birthday this year, my husband drove us both to see my Dad as he had not done so for a while, and we had a lovely morning tea for me. I brought it but that is fine!

The two of us.
- When I was 70.
- Tribute to Grandchildren.
- Our Wedding Day. 1971
Sometimes something surprising happens when you look outside. This was that! From our glass kitchen splashback one morning.
DECEMBER
Could we believe that we might be able to celebrate Christmas “with” COVID still hanging around? Yes, we could.#perhaps not. See below.
Along with:
- remembering social distancing: 1.5 metres between people
- limits of numbers at gatherings (mind you, this keeps shifting like the proverbial goal posts!)
- use of masks where social distancing cannot be practised…except basically no-one but a handful at my local shops are doing this..and that includes me.
However….that said, Australia is grateful to be an island surrounded by sea as is our next-door neighbour New Zealand as it’s because of that, and the closing of our respective countries’ borders early that we have done reasonably well. But even that sounds crass and not empathetic and many people lost their lives in COVID times, with the state of Victoria having the most. I truly send my condolences to all here and around the world where you have been personally affected.
At the time of writing, the first vaccines are being administered in the hardest hit country (to date, my thinking) U.S.A.
It is also the place where the current President whose names rhymes with rump will not accept he lost the November 2020 election to Joe Biden. Mr Biden will be sworn in on 20 January 2021.
FAMILY.ย
When I was at Dad’s place on 30 November, I did a walk around the walls where he has many of the family photos and some of them are large collages made by me for him to have memories on his walls. It was interesting for me to re-visit them to regain a renewed sense of gratitude for my life, the lives of those who went before me and to my parents. In fact my very first post for Telling My Story is this one: About Mum (Noreen) and Dad (Andrew).

L:Mum’s parents. Dad & Mum. 1946. R: Dad’s parents.
- About Dad & HIs Life By Me.
- Mum’s Tribute By Me.
CHRISTMAS MEMORIES & MORE.
As I write it is mid December with just under 10 days till Christmas Day. This year we are driving to Sydney to enjoy Christmas lunch with our daughter and son and some of our grandchildren. Back in our days living closer we often entertained on Christmas Day and I was pleased to do so. Before I took over the reins for our side of the family Mum and Dad hosted. This is how it works for us. Not doing too much (although I used to..of course) and it really IS about getting together.
- With my 3 grandkids: 2002?
- With our son’s eldest. 2008
- First Santa photo post cancer. 2017
- Thanking S Claus in 2018
- Last time, last year.
- Our adult GDs happy to do the Nativity Setting. 2020
UPDATE: Covid…..
If anything was going to change our year, it was “this” quiet and unseen danger.
The trouble with COVID19 is that it is:
#invisible
#most places
#highly contagious
#can be asymptomatic
In the time I want toย publish this on Wednesday 23 December, 2020, it could be that life with COVID in Australia, particularly NSW where I live, could have changed what our plans might be…again.
I also got to see some of the family who live in Sydney when I visited my prosthodontist for a sore mouth check on 22 December. My mouth’s skin is sometimes irritated by a tooth of the prosthesis but I can see why more and know, as he said my management inside my mouth is great. Phew.
- These reindeers have been with us for 19 years. Thanks E for looking after them and Santa.
- My Photographer GD with a very photogenic pooch.
- A tribute to my late MIL and more.
What I will do, however is UPDATE this post over the days till the end of 2020 if needed.
I do wish you all the very best time ahead. It IS meant to be fun, festive and family and friends time and I hope that works out for you too.
And be kind…..to yourselves first.
Denyse.
To my twitter friends: this was lovely to make. The first circle apparently people I tweet with most and so on to the outer circle. I love my twitter friends.
Your Comments Are Appreciated & Read by Denyse Who Always Replies!