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!)
At Year 6 Graduation last week Ella won the "Excellence in Science Award" for 2019 - with a wonderful commendation from Mrs Elliott, her Science teacher. 
And gave her last Assembly address as School Captain (Prime Minister) ......... Who will run the school next year?
She and her friends look so happy and excited about the future!
Closer inspection of the Excellence in Science Trophy shows Ella is the first female recipient in the last 6 years (so proud!).....
We're all so proud!!
Joshy was here for all the excitement too of course - but had to leave before the photos were taken (good timing Joshy!)
Ella's Year 6 Graduation Party was held the same night as the assembly. It had a Hawaiian theme so the kids all dressed up in their best beach party gear to suit. Jody had spent weeks working with other parents to transform the school hall into a colourful Hawaiian beach club scene complete with palm trees, lots of flowers and a Tiki Bar (serving soft drinks of course).
They really haven't changed much have they? (Pics below taken when Ella started Year 1 way back in 2013!).
Ella has just acquired her own phone!!!! so there was a lot of excited texting going on at this stage of the night. I suspect Ella striking this pose will be a pretty common sight over the school holidays.
Congratulations Ella on your stunning success at school and life in general over the last 12 and a half years!
