Little did I know what was around the corner after last weekend.
After a very relaxing weekend (well, every weekend is fairly relaxing as I still can't do much with my crook shoulder) I was super organised for school and had lots of planned meetings with parents scheduled to get through.
I was in my first one of these when I could feel the gentle vibrating of my phone ringing in my pocket. Thankfully it was on silent, so I ignored it. But the phone was not going to give up and it rang persistently, and I continued to ignore it.
Next minute our school secretary pops her head in to the meeting to tell me that I need to answer my phone urgently.
The next few minutes were a blur, as I took a call from my wife who sadly had to tell me that one of my brothers had died, being found dead in his home in another state of Australia.
So many things were rushing through my head, and thankfully our secretary sensed what was going on and very calmly was able to calm me down so that I could think more clearly so that I would be able to drive home safely.
I was home 20 minutes later, and after ringing the police was able to get the full news about what had happened to our eldest brother, who is known by everyone as 'Moose'.
Then it was the worst 20 minutes of my life as I rang my six other siblings to break the news to them.
Absolutely the six hardest phone calls I have ever had to make in my life.
The short sense of relief after finishing each call was replaced by the dread of the next one to make.
After hearing the grief coming down the line during each call, I was wondering if I would be able to get through them all, thankfully I did. Then it was time to ring close friends in the Colbinabbin community where we all grew up, as well as close friends and relatives.
In a matter of hours there were various siblings at our house sharing their grief and supporting each other, which really helped.
The next day was in to the funeral director's to get it all organised, and the care and concern from Mark at Mulqueen's could not be surpassed.
As Moose lived and worked in Broken Hill as a quarry manager, we needed to travel up there to collect his things and begin to sort out his affairs.
This isn't just a quick trip in a car, it is about a 9 hour drive, so last Weds myself and four siblings jumped in my car and off we went.
It's just as well that we all get on, because 16 hours in a car over two days means that if someone grates on the others, it can be a very long trip.
So how did we entertain ourselves? Put 5 teachers in a car and there is instantly loads of stories about kids, teachers, programs, professional development and whatever else that involves teaching.
Sounds nerdy, but it passed the time.
And as for some of the games we played...lots of arguments (friendly of course!) debates and challenges. For example, one of my sisters really challenged me when I said that Congupna ( a town in Victoria) starts with a 'C', while she insisted it started with a 'K'.
Thank you Google for helping me on that one!!
And two sisters went to town on each other with the spelling of Enniskillen, where one insisted that it started with an 'I' while the other was sure it started with an 'E'.
Google to the rescue again.
The rest of the trip up and back had more games such as "List 3 things you will see in the next three hours" (they were not allowed to be blatantly obvious). My brother suggested ' goat up a tree', because he actually saw that on the trip up. As for the trip back...zilch. One of my suggestions was 'a car crash', which they all thought odd. I eventually confessed that I overheard on the radio in the police station that there had been a crash on the highway just before we left Broken Hill.
When we all felt like crap after having to deal with the loss of Moose, it was great to be able to have this enforced time together to be able to talk about so many things, and to be able to help each other to deal with it in their own way.
So the next few days will involve being back at school for a few days before the funeral, then I'm heading back to Broken Hill again to do the final sorting of Moose's things. Luckily I'll have one of my sons with me, so even that time together will be special.
Not a great thing to write about tonight, but it has been therapeutic for me.
RIP Moose.
Until my next post...
Cheers
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