Mum’s disease progressed slowly at first, and then in a really big rush. After years of battling early onset Parkinson’s, in 2015 we were suddenly told she only had six months left.
I was living in Brisbane, Australia and Mum was in a care home 600km away in Taree, so I began flying down every second weekend to visit. At the time, it was still common to print out your boarding pass – or at least, it was for me; I was a bit late to the tech game.
So every weekend I visited, I’d go to the local Officeworks to print my pass for the flight home. Every time, I was served by the same person, a friendly lady who asked why I was flying down so often. I told her what was going on. Whenever I saw her, she’d enquire about how Mum was going and we’d have a nice chat.
When Mum became really ill, I drove down and stayed with her for a month until she passed, one terrible day two weeks after Christmas. The day of her funeral, on our way to the chapel, I went to Officeworks to print out the eulogy I had written. It had been a really dry summer but that day the skies ripped open and it was pouring down.
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Again, I was served by the same lady. When I told her what I needed to print, she came out from behind the counter and gave me a huge hug – a long, proper chest-to-chest embrace that wrapped me up and held me close. Then, because I didn’t have an umbrella, she insisted I take one off the shelf for free.
That was the last time I went to Officeworks Taree, so I never saw that woman again, but I will always remember her care and support. Flying up and down every fortnight by myself had been an isolating experience. She made me feel that someone had witnessed the journey I was on, all the way through to its difficult conclusion. She made me feel less alone.
I noticed in losing my mum how many people get awkward around grief. They don’t know what to say, or how to sit with it. This woman didn’t shy away from it at all. She could have stayed behind her register and offered me condolences. Instead, she came right around that counter and squeezed me tight. Her warm hug made me feel as if I could face the day.
