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It's been a long time since I've updated this site, but I will try and update it more regularly.
Since the last time, I have lost another brother and my sister has had the pill camera for something that her specialists are trying to understand that's happening in her digestive system. She is still waiting for the results.
Going back to my brother, in April 2008 he rang me and told me that he had been diagnosed with liver cancer. This was a second cancer, so, of course, it comes under the FAP banner because a bout of bowel cancer in 1996 was the first he had had.
I rang Allen every other day until he went into hospital early May and then I kept in touch with his wife and his daughter. His daughter was living here in Karratha at the time, so we kept each other's spirits up.
The week before he died, I rang Jennifer and asked her what she thought. Together we worked out that he probably had two weeks left, so I arranged to go over there on the weekend after the next week.
Jennifer rang me on the following Saturday morning to tell me he'd passed on. I thought about mine and Allen's relationship and I did not feel guilty about not getting to see him. We had spoken well over the last month and I'd made him laugh, which is what I like to do, and the only thing I'd not said was that I loved him. But, I know he knew that I did.
The day of his funeral was a really nice day. The sun was shining and the air was still. It was the kind of day that Allen would have liked to be out in a boat. And, that's how I still think of Allen - like he's on a boat on the Bay. He and I liked our yachting and he moved down to Frankston when he got married on the intention of spending more time in boats.
I found out a lot about Allen that day. I found out that he picked up most of his friends on the beach - outside the yacht club! Every Friday night, he and Sue and the kids would go down to the beach with their fish and chips and have tea outside the yacht club. He drew in a lot of new members for the club that way. It was his energy that made the club what it is.
Allen's passion was sailing and it had been as soon as Gramps had finished our Heron yacht. Allen will always sail, wherever he is. Sail on well, Allen.
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