My Darling Gone - My Life Changed

by jules
(Boonah,Qld)

How can I tell the person that John was - he had some very rigid ideas of right and wrong, he was an artist - but had no real confidence in his talent, painted for himself, though I think he was really pleased when people wanted his work. He could do anything, he was a boilermaker by trade, and worked hard. He loved unconditionally - me, his son and daughter, his grandchildren. It broke his heart that we couldn't see our granddaughter, it hurt him that our son wasn't able to see his daughter either. He missed his daughter, who moved interstate, and her family of four boys.

Through the years I would see things I liked - a windmill - he made me one, we wanted to go camping - he made us a trailer to carry the gear. Our first house was too small - he built another room on, virtually by himself. He let me be me - he grounded me (boy did I need to be grounded - still do). He did photography - taking photos and developing and printing them, not just for his family, but for friends as well, and he was the photographer for our local junior football teams.

When we were younger we wanted to buy a house, but money was tight, so he learnt how to make metal art tables and planter stands, and would work at them after work, and on Sundays, and we would go to markets and sell them, till we had enough money to build our home.

He was a "doer", a worker, a person who could see where he wanted to be, and find a way to get there. He was smart, intelligent and knowledgeable. (When I told my son his dad had had a stroke - he said that dad had absorbed too much in his brain, and it couldn't take any more.) He read - history, especially Australian history, and loved to travel to some of the places he had read about.

He was respected and liked by his workmates, and his employers.

I was going to upload a picture, but I noticed that every picture over the last six months of his life, he was walking away from me - I never noticed at the time.