Bye bye Nanna

My Nan died early on Monday morning, aged 78. My poor Pop - who described Nanna as his soul mate and has been with her for nearly 60 years - is a bit lost, and I don't know how things will go for him with time. My Mum is naturally upset, but over the years (ever the practical nurse), she has talked honestly with Nanna about her mortality. While it was a bit sudden, in some ways it wasn't - she smoked for 40 or so years, was quite obese for much of her life, and in the past 15 or so years, there have been many angina attacks, bad arthritis, and a few other conditions that increased with frequency over more recent years. So when it came down to Nanna being in a coma hooked up to machines, it was clear to her immediate family what Nanna's wishes were, they were able to instruct the doctors accordingly. And her poor old body had really had enough.

My Nan was born at the beginning of the Depression, and her mother died when she was 3. She and her sister were fostered out with family, and her father went back to living a bachelor life and went looking for work. She lived for a while with an Aunty and Uncle who loved her, but who were having difficult pregnancies, therefore she was handed around the family a bit. Sometimes she was "a bit of a handful" - according to her - and she was whipped or hit for it. Her dad remarried later, but she didn't go back to living with him. She went to work as a nurse when she was 17, soon met Pop, and they married by the time she was 19, and had my Mum when she was 20, followed rapidly by my Auntie and Uncle. They lived in rental houses most of their life, but bought a beach shack north of Hobart as Pop neared retirement - they moved into their first fully owned home when they were retired. They moved back to Hobart recently, when it became apparent they were too far away for ambulances to reach them in time if something went wrong.

I didn't get to see my Nanna that often, as I grew up interstate. However, she always loved me unconditionally, was kind and loving, and I know she thought of me often. Nanna had such a difficult childhood, yet became the loving matriarch of 3 children, 7 grand-children, and 9 great-grandchildren, and she remembered every birthday! I realise now how important that unconditional love is - I am grateful that she was able to give my own mother such a loving foundation to her life, with flow-on benefits to me and my family.