Kindness in Time of Adversity

Warning: My story may not be suitable for your readership, and whoever is concerned of, I am not giving my grief to anyone. Please take note. Read at your own risk. This is my personal life and has nothing to do with any of yours. If I were you, mind your own business.

Series 1

"A good marriage would be between a blind wife and a deaf husband." ~Michel de Montaigne

Circa 1991.

It was November, having had just started life afresh from a marriage breakdown, my youngest sister proposed a holiday for me and my two little children. They were barely two and one year old  respectively. Then, I was due to be operated. I suffered a set-back caused by life's strains and stresses and lost my hearing. It was quickly diagnosed after an initial complaint that I could not hear. Three or four emergency visits to my GP, audiologist, back to the GP and finally the Specialist confirmed that something went wrong with my ears.

It was on that bumpy ride of my married life when my little sister asked me if I would like to visit them in Germany. At that time my sense of humour got caught up in a quagmire of a very personal circumstance. I told my sister in that point of time, I didn't need a joke, only something tangible and real. So she and her hubby went ahead with their proposal. I suggested a pre-paid plane ticket to be quick in as far as I knew,  having worked in a travel-related job before. But they were advised against it by their Travel Agent as it would cost them higher to send us ticket from their port of origin. Instead, they sent me money to buy the ticket here.

There was no computer in those days. I did not employ the local travel agencies. I painstakingly canvassed a cheap rate ticket from daily newspapers both local and national. All plane fare quotations were checked including those in fine print advertisements. I found one in Marickville. I rang, inquired and booked for the flight.

I opted Yugoslav Airlines that offered the cheapest though my kindhearted  brother-in-law recommended Northwest Airlines which could fly us direct to  Frankfurt from Sydney. I could have chosen it too but I felt conscience-strickened to learn that it would cost them a fortune and that it was a luxury I could do without. Having been asked to go visit them at their expense alone had already given me a burden, what more if it meant an exuberance spill out from their pocket. What was important, I would get there sooner than later.

Apart from the cheap airfare, the airline would allow me to see other countries even in parts like Singapore, Dubai and Belgrade, now a city of Serbia after reclaiming its independence from Yugoslavia in 2006. I did not realize that in doing so, it was not an ideal choice to make when you travel with small children.

Before I committed myself to finalizing our flight arrangement, I went to speak to my Specialist requesting for his permission to travel since the schedule of my operation was deferred in March of the following year due to the unavailability of bed space in the hospital. He gave me a nod and my GP also issued me a Letter of Recommendation to the Authority that I was still fit to travel with my small children considering of my medical circumstance.

The "'bend in the road' of my life was not meant to be 'the end of the road'" for me - when my ex-husband had 'failed to take a safety turn' and was trapped in his car by a road accident that led him to sign the papers thereby allowing me to take my children with me to Germany. In his shaky hands, he affixed his signature on  the Authorization papers then I quickly took it to the court where I was given a clearance to travel with my two angels.

I believed the road mishap was designed by our gracious heaven as a gift to my ex-husband for giving me a hard time, big time. Upon knowing my plan of going away to Germany, he instructed the court through his Lawyer that I could go but not with my precious children. I contested via my Lawyer that the reason I was invited to visit Germany was for my sisters to see my children and to give me a break as well. He conceded in the beginning but changed his mind. Then that change of mind was thwarted in the guise of the accident. He made a lucky escape after making three tumblings and hitting cars along the road at TAFE College after he left the unit where my little girls and I lived. So far he came out well and alive except feeling nervous and sporting only a little bruise on his back and arm. Gee, bad people when hit with bad luck can become a meek lamb, you know.

He was released from the emergency department in a nearby public hospital which added to his luck because the Ambulance apparently didn't need to run a ten mile long trip to take him there.

When he came to visit us the following day, he was as cool as a cucumber to break the news to me that he met an accident by the roadside near the school. My first question was, who saved his life because he was a man who only believed in himself. In answer to my question, he pointed his finger upward and I knew whom he meant. Years later when things settled down, I asked him again who saved him, this time, he pointed his finger to himself. That was the real McCoy of him.

Okay - now, the unit where we lived had to be given up after all the hassles of cleaning and repainting it myself. Day and night; and night and day. Scrub, brush, hot water, disinfectant and all those stuff ... the unit was damped, filthy, dark, gloomy ... a place less  but more decent than a slum, if not an asylum. Unfortunately, that was the only place available on that emergency time, so I was left in a very precarious situation to make a decision against my will. Take it or leave it. I took it!

Just as we were starting to enjoy the blissful peace in our life, the trip going to Germany meant a lot to me and I desperately wanted to take a plight. But slowly, patiently and surely, everything was arranged and organized accordingly in such a calm fashion amidst the storm.

Furnitures were sold, and other stuff were left to my ex-husband's place as a security that we were coming back. Bugger that kind of life, but it was as it was!

Storms

By Margie DeMerell

There will be storms, child

There will be storms

And with each tempest

You will seem to stand alone

Against cruel winds

But with time, the rage and fury

Shall subside And when the sky clears

You will find yourself

Clinging to someone

You would have never known

But for storms.

Now the trip - and before that - on the real time .... to be continued.