All posts tagged: death

“I collapsed and died in the hospital ward”

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This article is part of the #flamfaces series. Here, Noel Towns of Launceston shares a snippet of his story. I put my faith in Christ at the very young age of eight years and have felt His guidance throughout my journey, maintaining regular times of Bible reading and prayer. I have wrestled with the challenges and tensions between my faith and real world experience in both personal and business spheres for my entire life. Over a 40-year real estate career I often experienced my faith values intersecting and informing appropriate ethical behaviour in the work place. Our faith also led my wife ‘Chris’ and I to adopt four Ethiopian siblings to add to our family of five biological children. This has been an exciting and rewarding experience and an ongoing journey. We now have 25 grandchildren and still counting! A major turning point in my life occurred in August 2016 when I was raced to hospital with a septic gallbladder, which needed to be removed. Before that happened though, I collapsed and died in the hospital ward due …

“I was pregnant with our 3rd child when my husband died”

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This article is part of the #flamfaces series. Here, Melissa Lubke of Launceston shares a snippet of her story. I was 11 weeks pregnant with our third child when my husband died. I drove to the church barbecue down the road, while Andrew rode his motorbike shortly after. Half an hour passed, mingling with people, and a friend said, “Where’s Andrew?” Then it clicked. Where’s Andrew? What are all those sirens? Andrew used to joke that I jump to conclusions, but this time I was right, honey. I went to see. It was less than a kilometre away and they were turning cars around. I kept going. I just knew. I kept driving closer to the police car and I wound my window down and said, “Is it a motorbike?” And she said yes. I’d seen people come off motorbikes on TV and they were fine. So at that stage I imagined it would mean a lot of bed-ridden rehabilitation. I rang our friends and asked them to pray before following him to hospital in another ambulance. That night, …

Look at the Beautiful Clouds

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Have you noticed the clouds? Seems they’ve been particularly spectacular of late. Were you a neighbour you might have seen me standing precariously on a rickety bench seat on the deck, neck craned to watch the cloud formations as they balloon and morph in a moody panorama. There are those sweet little fluffy white ones, the kind in children’s books, harmless as a bunny loping in the sun. There are the clouds that multiply into an expansive pattern, repeated like ripples in sand stretching out ad infinitum. And (my favourite), there are the clouds that growl. They have steely edges and are backlit to give the illusion of added dimensions. Crispest white is contrasted with rumbling grey, deep and violent against a passive blue backdrop. Can you picture them? Billowing, curling like meringue, and dramatic as the stage makeup for a Broadway show. I balance there, watching the performance, snapping a few pics with my SLR even while sensing the impending disappointment – because my awe always outstrips my technical know-how with a camera. I learnt …

Loving Floyd – a Story of Hurt and Hope

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You know when a friend does something really amazing and you just want to scream “I KNOW HER! I KNOW HER!” to ride on the coattails of their success a little? That’s what I’m about to do. Chantelle Pitt is a friend of mine and she’s also a newly published author. The hard story of her son Floyd’s short life and the profound journey God has taken this family on is now a book with real pages, chapters and even some photos! The book is titled ‘Loving Floyd’ (Ark House Press) and here’s the blurb: “Is it possible to experience unimaginable pain and loss and still want to talk to God? Is it possible to come to a place of surrender and acceptance regardless of the outcome? Is it possible to learn so much about God, yourself and others through the grief of the most precious gift now gone? LOVING FLOYD is the remarkable story of one couple who fought to the end to save the life of their unborn son. Relying on her raw …

“I Want to Live the Kind of Life He Lived” (A Daughter To Her Dad)

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Loved ones come and loved ones go. It is a reality of life that there comes an end point. Whether they meet death fresh-faced with barely a day to their name or as a sage with decades of experience and wisdom, one point remains true: life is precious. Here, Christine bravely lays bare her grief in homage to her dad who died a few months back; a man whose 82 years were lived with the kind of dignity and faith that has left the sweet kiss of legacy on those who remain. Another This Little Life story… “The hymn beautifully expressed what had been on our hearts during the 12 weeks of our dearly loved father’s hospital stay. When peace like a river flows all through my life, When sorrows like sea billows roll. Whatever my lot you have taught me to say: It is well, it is well with my soul. It was evening as the family gathered one last time to farewell Pieter, our Dad and Opa. I got the call just after …

Intermission: Between the Cancer Death of One Child and the Birth of a New Baby

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If you were to ask me, “Who is the most inspiring person in your life?”, chances are I would name Rebecca Fogarty.  She is a dear friend, one who has navigated extreme hardship with Godly wisdom, dignity and courage.  I want to be like her!  She’s also extremely eloquent, so I won’t rabbit on. These are her words, another This Little Life story that demonstrates the inherent value of life. (Rebecca first shared this story at the 2014 Flourish women’s event in Launceston) “Intermission. The break in the middle of the show that allows you to get something to eat, go to the loo or talk to the person next to you. Intermission is also the name we have given the last nine weeks. It has been a time without children…between children. While excruciatingly painful it has also been a valuable chance to rest, to talk and to think. What I am about to share is sad but it turns out okay so please trust me and come with me on this. My son Leo was …

What’s the Most Prevailing Fashion Accessory? (Clue: It’s an Instrument of Torture)

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Isn’t it interesting the way so many people choose to wear a symbol of torturous execution as an adornment around their neck. Some go a step further and have this emblem stuck to their bumpers, hung on their wall, tattooed on their skin. The cross is a timeless fashion accessory. I wonder why the gallows and the guillotine didn’t take off in the same way for the interior design and fashion industry. I’ve yet to see someone sporting a lethal injection tattoo, a cat o’ nine tails artwork above their mantelpiece or an electric chair (in miniature) hanging from a chain around their neck. That would be macabre, in poor taste – gothic at best.  Why then, do we make an exception for the cross? Roman crucifixion, the method used for Jesus’ execution, was incredibly painful, hence the term ‘excruciating’.  Warning: if you’re sensitive around the topics of violence, mutilation and torture, I’d suggest you skip the next few paragraphs. Crucifixion was saved for the worst kinds of criminals. The criminal usually carried his cross …

Acorn or Oak? Allow Jesus’ Greatness to Speak.

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My son is a collector. Doesn’t matter much what the object is, but were you to drop in at our place on any given day you would find small collections stashed in tins, on plates and in plastic bags. Vacated snail shells. Pebbles. Old business cards. Once, he collected a pile of broad bean husks and we didn’t find his hidey hole until months later, mould and all! But his all-time favourite is acorns. Every trip to the park sees him return home with fistfuls of acorns, pockets bulging with the things (although he insists they are coconuts). Recently, we planted some. We explained that from the unassuming little orb buried in a pot of dirt would sprout a tree – a grand and towering oak tree with strong sprawling branches and a height that would dwarf even daddy! Did he understand?  No.  He was still looking at the acorn nestled in his palm. He liked the acorn, he could appreciate the acorn but he couldn’t truly grasp its potential. In a few short days we …

Permission to Grieve

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The outpouring of grief following the death last week of television personality Charlotte Dawson has been immense.  The media has lamented the glamorous blonde’s tragic end, naming the causes of her death as depression stemming from a marriage breakdown, financial troubles and her well-documented battle with cyber bullies.  But few have named the root of Charlotte’s tragic struggle with depression. Truth is, she pinpointed it herself. In Charlotte’s 2012 memoir titled Air Kiss And Tell, she revealed that her depression began after she and then-husband and troubled Olympic swimmer Scott Miller chose to have an abortion. “I felt a shift,” she wrote. “Maybe it was hormonal, but I felt the early tinges of what I can now identify as my first experience with depression.” The circumstances around the couple’s decision were not unlike those faced by most women who will choose to terminate a pregnancy; the timing was all wrong.  Charlotte was thrilled, but Scott hesitated because baby was due at the same time as the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games. “Everything Scott had done was …

“The Doctors Were Wrong; Our Son Lives”. Child Euthanasia Would Have Robbed This Family of Nine Wonderful Months… and Counting.

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Whatever you do, don’t move to Belgium.  Its chocolates may be unsurpassed, its boutique breweries may be consummate but its laws are downright barbaric.  I allude to this speck of a country’s recent decision to legalise euthanasia for terminally ill children of any age.  You heard right.  Child euthanasia.  Any age. Adult euthanasia became legal in Belgium in 2002 and neighbouring Holland has allowed child euthanasia, with a minimum age of 12 years, for some time now.  Sounds a lot like a gradient with a slick and shifty surface. But how would I know what it’s like?  How can I judge when I’ve never been in the agonising situation of mothering a terminally ill child? Fair call. Launceston parents Rebecca and Kyron Fogarty know that their son Leo would have been a prime candidate, were they living in Belgium.  From the age of 14 months, Leo has undergone radiation treatment and chemotherapy in an attempt to obliterate the cancerous tumour in his tummy.  Any semblance of normalcy was upended for this family, and stints in …