Introduction

View from the verandah

Peter and I were sitting on the verandah having a glass of wine. It was late afternoon and the shadows were getting longer across the paddocks and the temperature was starting to drop. We were watching the kookaburras on the fence, the dog and cat were lying in the last spot of sunshine for the day and the kids were inside doing whatever teenagers do. He looked at me and said. ’How good is this?’
We have been living in the country now for three and a half years. It has been a rollercoaster ride for our family but we have got to a point where we are all settled and happy to be here.
The timing of our move could have been better. Peter had just started a new job, we had teenage daughters and I was nearly blind!
What brought a family who were all born and bred in the city to a small village in the country? When I thought about where this journey began for us I realised that two phone calls a couple of months apart were defining moments in my life.
The first call was from Peter. We worked in the same office and vaguely knew each other. I answered the phone to hear. ‘It’s Peter from work.’ This call lasted a couple of hours and by the end he had convinced me to go out to lunch with him the next day.
A few months later I received a call from my eye specialist telling me that donor tissue was available for me to have a cornea transplant.
These two phone calls set in motion all the events that would lead us to a very beautiful spot in Southern NSW.