My beautiful sister Maxine

I have two beautiful sisters but this most difficult post is all about my beautiful sister Maxine. I want to pay tribute to her extraordinary courage, resilience and passion for life, love and creative expression over the past two and a half years - in the face of the terrible onslaught of her illness and its various treatments.

We found out in late March 2017 that something was wrong. The wonderful Dr Kevin in Mildura expedited all the tests and a biopsy that confirmed a highly aggressive and rare carcinomasarcoma (MMMT) had established itself in Maxie's uterus. In early April we travelled up to Sydney with Maxie and Rod for a full consult with Dr Robyn Sayer (from Westmead Hospital) where a treatment plan was developed. 

Despite the pervading sense of worry we still had plenty of fun in Sydney - a lovely meal at Chiswick at the AGNSW, meeting up with Judy and Jurgen at the Pool Cafe in Maroubra ..........

...... and celebrating Fiona W's big birthday with her at the Hyatt Regency - overlooking a spectacular sunset and fireworks on Darling Harbour.

Dr Sayer operated on Maxie in April 2017 - the first hysterectomy by robotic surgery in Canberra! Only one of the 21 lymph nodes tested at the time showed evidence of cancer cells - not a perfect outcome but hopeful we thought!

After the mandated 6 week recovery time Maxie was ready to start her first round of chemo in early June 2017. I found this pic she sent me on her first day of chemo quite heart wrenching. She looked so bright, beautiful and ready (and stylish!), yet so vulnerable.

Six rounds of Carboplatin - at three weekly intervals was so tough..... but nothing compared to the final 25 days of the final round where Maxie had to undergo daily, hideous radiotherapy treatment alongside the chemo infusions.

Throughout this time Maxie continued to look her beautiful, stylish self despite the pain, the sickness, the hair loss and the extreme infusion day anxiety induced by her veins becoming increasingly incompetent as treatment progressed.

Going shopping for her "kickarse pearls" from the wonderful Creations at Manuka was a welcome diversion in the midst of all this.

 Ros and Pete visited us in Canberra in late July that year...........

...... and Maxie was able to join us early one morning to spread our Mum's ashes in a beautiful bushland setting near our apartment, to a background chorus of Mum's beloved magpies.

By November 2017, with the gruelling treatment over, Maxie was ready for 5 days of fun with us in Sydney. She said she was feeling great and she certainly looked wonderful and had a real spark in her eyes. We stopped off at The Grounds in Alexandria on the way in to Coogee - for lunch and a first time look at all this Insta pretty place has to offer.

We had a fabulous time in Sydney - saw Carole King the musical, visited a potter at Brookvale TAFE, lunched at Manly, saw beautiful exhibitions at the art gallery, caught up with the foodie delights at Chatswood and explored more of our fave Surry Hills.

 Maxie and Rod's 50th wedding anniversary (They married in Brisbane on 25th November 1967) was another great excuse for a family celebration, hosted by Josh and Jody in late November that year... What a truly inspiring couple, partnership and marriage - through thick and thin!

 All the Christmas - New Year celebrations of 2017-2018 took on a real edge of pleasure and intensity as we all marvelled at Maxie's recovery from a hellish year.

 Davey, Cath and the kids came out to Australia for 2 weeks over Christmas - New Year, including a joyous family holiday with Claire and the boys at Mollymook, and time in Sydney.

Maxie made this exquisite hand embroidered, smocked linen top/dress for Ivy in the months prior to Christmas - starting it when she wasn't feeling well - but finishing it in time for Christmas - Ivy (and her Mummy) loved it - a true work of art!

 It wasn't long after our annual lobster lunch weekend in late February 2018 that one of Maxie's regular CT scans made her oncologist suspect that there may be further nodule growth in Maxie's lungs!!!

Despite the concern we all felt at this news Maxie and Rod loved their Mildura visit in March, meeting us in Melbourne for St Patrick's Day and the big celebration for James W's big birthday.

However by May 2018, the oncologist's horrible suspicions about the nodules in Maxie's lung were confirmed.... and Maxie had to start another hideous 18 week round of chemo (Epirubicin this time) on 6th June.

The side effects of this particular brand of chemo poison proved to be even worse than the previous lot the year before.  Despite all this Maxie was great company on our 2 night road trip to Orange in mid-July, including a fabulous visit to Phillip Shaw Wines in the beautiful wine country close to Orange.

We fitted in a day trip to Bowral when Maxie felt up to it too.... another day of enjoying all the good things in life - including a bit of a shop at our fave Arkke in Bong Bong Street.

As Maxie finished this last brutal round of chemo in mid October Davey came out from London for a visit - a time of great happiness for Maxie and the family and a real boost to her spirits.....

Just like last year she was full of her usual smiles for all the Christmas - New Year celebrations 2018-2019.

... and glass of Majella in hand, as usual, at our annual lobster lunch at Rosedale in early February this year. 

Maxie and Rod stayed overnight at Rosedale with us this time - meaning we could prolong the pleasure of being with some of our favourite people in this most special place in the world.

 We left Canberra soon after the Rosedale weekend with Maxie and Rod for a wonderful, week long road trip to visit Ros and Pete in Geelong.....

We could all see Maxie was not in robust health and she found the long car trips uncomfortable at times - but we never heard her complain - nor did she ever lose that beautiful smile throughout this trip .....

and that incredible sense of style!

....... and then we headed across the bay to the beautiful Mornington Peninsula for a few days. 

After that we weren't back in Canberra long before Davey came for another visit - a chance to enjoy Canberra's glorious Autumn weather with Maxie and the family.

Ros and Pete came up to Canberra over Easter this year - so another chance for lovely family time together in beautiful Canberra weather .....

By the time we headed off to Castlemaine for the Jazz Festival on the June long weekend this year Maxie had started more chemo (her THIRD round) in response to renewed activity in her lungs AND new lesions on her T3 and T4!!

Despite all this Maxie was full of her usual smiles and joy in life for our weekend of great music in widely varying but always charming venues in Castlemaine.

During treatment, in late July we headed down to Moruya for a beautiful lunch with Judy and Jurgen at the River Restaurant. It was so good to see Maxie well enough to enjoy the day, even with the discomfort of car travel.

And darling Ros came up to Canberra for a weekend in late July too! By now we all know we have to enjoy as much time as we can together.

A stunning pic of Maxie enjoying Ollie's birthday celebration at the Hyatt in early August.............

In late August Maxie had a delivery to make to "Sculpture on Clyde" so we used it as an excuse for a day trip to Bateman's Bay and a freshly caught seafood lunch at this quirky fishing shed on the banks of the Clyde R.

Throughout this whole period Maxie had maintained a pretty fearsome work schedule creating hundreds of beautiful ceramic sculpture pieces to meet the ever pressing demands of her fans and interstate gallery owners. Maxie built an Instagram following of just under 5,000 people over the last couple of years and her work is in constant demand. Even when her strength was failing she kept up her work orders - although in the last couple of months Rod did a lot of the lifting and clay rolling for her. Every sculpture piece Maxie has made over the past decade or so has been documented in a beautiful photographic collection - which is just as well as they have all gone - all been sold to her many admirers, both in Australia and overseas.

Maxie's third round of chemo was Paclitaxel: this time at a reduced dosage but infused weekly. It gave her a lot of nausea and tired her out completely.. She stopped treatment in early September when CT scans showed it was no longer effective.............

Maxie attempted one last day trip on 11th September this year - back to the River Restaurant in Moruya to celebrate Jenny's 75th birthday. It wasn't an easy day for her with her terrible coughing attacks, her residual chemo nausea and her increasingly wobbly legs....... not that we ever heard this darling girl complain!!

It wasn't long after this that Maxie had a Pleurodesis operation to address the issues in her left lung followed by a PleurX drain being installed in her left lung a few weeks later - both fairly hideous procedures...... but which have largely been effective in relieving her lung symptoms. A Palliative Care Team operating out of Queanbeyan Hospital started visiting Maxie at home from the time the pleurX drain was in operation.

By the time we got back from our Bali Lombok break in late September Maxie was really troubled by a dramatic decrease in her balance and mobility. It seemed to take an age before the right person could be convinced to get an MRI done - by which time it was realised that the lesions on T3 and T4 were compressing her spinal cord (by 50% at this stage)!! An urgent course of 5 radiation sessions on T3 & T4 started on Friday 4th October. Ros and Pete came up over that weekend and Pete put in a sterling effort with Rob, making a series of ramps so that Rod could wheel Maxie safely to the car each day for these sessions at The Canberra Hospital.

We were all hoping for a dramatic improvement in Maxie's mobility after the radiation but, other than a fairly small improvement, it wasn't what we'd hoped for. Davey came back for another week's visit in mid October which must have been a real boost for Maxie and Rod at this time. 

By now we were all noticing that Maxie was having increasing difficulty with her speech - as well as the gradually worsening mobility.  She also described having "migraine auras" and felt "weird" in the head. An eventual MRI on Maxie's brain finally revealed four very aggressive tumours, playing havoc with her sight, mobility and speech! I'll never forget sitting in that session with Drs Samuel and Lisa on the 30th October as they outlined to Maxie, Rod and Claire the urgency of the situation and their recommendation for irradiation of the aggressive brain tumours.

By the time Ros arrived for a weekend stay on 1st November we were all very concerned at the alarming progression of Maxie's illness. It was becoming almost impossible for Rod to care for her at home and Maxie was becoming increasingly frustrated at not being able to communicate what she wanted. By Sunday 3rd November her condition had deteriorated so much that we called an ambulance and she was admitted the The Canberra Hospital.  We really thought we were losing her!

Maxie stabilised a bit in hospital - and was able eventually to talk to us. her extreme condition on Sunday was apparently brought on by low sodium levels in her blood (tumour related). However so much damage had already been done by then that Dr Lisa no longer recommended radiation. On Thursday 7th November Maxie was moved to a beautiful quiet room (room 19) at Clare Holland House - a palliative care hospice on the banks of Lake Burley Griffin - very near to where we live at Saint Germain.

Here we are with Maxie each day now. Her gentle, loving, heart broken Rod is with her most of the day. She is calm and not in pain and she continues to smile a lot and we are able to tell her how much we love her and hold her beautiful hands ... this beautiful, amazing, talented big hearted sister of mine - how can we ever fill the hole you will leave in our hearts?

(Thank you Rod for this beautiful photo!)