2021...

26th January...

This was a day that I will never forget.  My sister Dawn passed away very suddenly.  I got a call early evening from my brother inlaw in South Africa to tell me the devistating news that Dawn had passed away very suddently, she was 60 years old.  We had only spoken 2 days prior and she seemed fine.  She said she was going to the Dr's to have some tests done cause the new medication she was on for diabetes was making her very weezy.  Her appointment was on Tuesday and she had some tests done and left the surgery and went to Woolworths (Marks and Spencers) and was browsing around and suddenly just collapsed.  There was a nurse in the store at the time and she started CPR, they got hold of Richard on her phone and he got there within 10/15 minutes.  They tried as hard as they could to save her, and when the paramedics arrived, shortly after she was pronounced dead.  We were all so shocked, and beyond heartbroken.

Dawn was the eldest of us 4 kids, she was 8 years older than me.  I will say that we didn't have the closest relationship growning up, I think I was just this annoying and totally irritating little sister who would constantly nick her stuff without asking and bossing her about when she brought boyfriends home and I would tell her that its 11pm, you should go to bed now!!!  I was a brat to be fair.

I still can’t believe that I am never going to be able to speak to her again and hear her voice, saying…. “Hey Nuuu”. We never ever ended our calls without saying "I miss you so much" and "love you".

I feel so privileged to have had her as MY sister. Many of those years were apart, but even so, we had a very special bond, and we just seemed to get each other. But the times we were growing up and we were together, we laughed and fought as siblings do. Sorry about the barbie dolls and cutting all their hair off when you were in England at Boarding School (sadly my hairdressing skills never improved from there on!!) And all the times I would come into her room when she were living in the cottage at the bottom of the garden and taking (without asking!) her beautiful Christian Dior stockings, and then ruining them. I was a horrid younger sister at times, and I am sure there were many times she just wanted to throttle me.

I would always love hearing her wacky stories about how she was psychic and believed in weird things like: she would always know when Mike Bohnen was coming to visit because a glass In the kitchen cupboard would fly off the shelf and smash and the next thing Mike would turn up. In honesty I thought you were a bit off with the fairies, but I would listen to all your crazy ideas and loved them.

I have never been a big believer in those things, until….  I got a very big ball of wool in the post, it was addressed to me, it was from Amazon but had no other information on it. I asked Theo if I had drunk one too many gins the other night and accidentally ordered a large ball of wool?? He assured me I had definitely drunk too much gin but I had not ordered anything. So I asked all the obvious people who may have sent me something like that. No one has owned up! So, I thought, well I may as well “finally” learn to knit. Knitting is something I would tease Dawn about, I would always say, it’s something “old people” do. I bought a pair of knitting needles and on THAT Tuesday (before the terrible news) I watched a few youtube videos on how to knit a scarf. Tuesday afternoon I started knitting. You got the last laugh Dawn. Thank you for the wool, I have finish the scarf and it will always remind me of you.

I love you and miss you more than you will EVER know.

13th November...

DAWN'S BIRTHDAY

We celebrated Dawn's Birthday with the most amazing Abba party at ours.  She was mad about Abba and I had been speaking to friends of mine Lisa and Claire while we were out for dinner and we came up with the idea to have an Abba Party at ours, but was to be on Dawn's Birthday. 

While Jackie, Lori and I got ready, we then went down stairs and I asked Theo to please set up my computer to the speaker system in the lounge and while us girls were chatting away I had my back to Theo while he was sorting it out and suddenly the DVD came on and it was a video I had taken of Dawn and her daugher Megan while I was in South Africa visiting. I spun around and I said to Theo, did you put the DVD on, and he said no, he hadn't touched it, and... that recording wasn't even at the begining of the DVD.  I had a fullness in my heart like you can't believe, I knew it was her way of saying she was with us.

There must have been about 30 of us, and everyone came dressed up in their Abba outfits and we had the most amazing evening.  I laughed so much and felt like she was with me all the way.