The phone rang. ‘It’s Peter Malone from work.’ We both worked at the Civil Service Association of WA and knew each other vaguely. I tried to convince Peter it was too difficult to start seeing each other because of the work situation but he persisted and we started having lunch together. Soon we were heading out for dinner and the movies.
Our courtship was interrupted by the phone call from Dr Barrett. While I was in hospital Peter was a regular visitor and his support and care made my life much easier during the recovery period.
A few months after my surgery Peter was going away for two weeks on business and would be away for my birthday. He had arranged for us to have dinner before he left at the ‘Loose Box’, one of Perth’s top restaurants. During dinner he gave me my birthday present – two tickets to a Jimmy Barnes concert that was going to be on while he was away. I was a huge fan and loved the present but while we were waiting for dessert he asked.
‘Will you marry me in January?’
The waiter bought over a bottle of Moet and Chandon for us and I discovered the staff had been waiting all night for him to pop the question!
When I walked down the aisle six months after surgery with my new cornea to marry Peter my vision wasn’t great but it was good enough to see him waiting at the end for me! I had always thought that on my wedding day I would have contact lenses which I had practised wearing for months or be wearing my glasses. It had never crossed my mind it would happen with neither.
It was a bit weird seeing our wedding photos. In all the photos from milestones in my life I was wearing my ‘coke bottle’ glasses and never in my wildest dreams did it occur to me that technology and wonderful doctors and donors would be able to give me a permanent contact lens.
I was still on the waiting list for the second operation when Peter and I wanted to move on to the next era of our lives and become parents. As we had no control over the timing and I didn’t want to be pregnant or have a young baby when the call came, weekly calls were made to Dr Barrett’s secretary Carole to check my progress on the list. I’m sure they bumped me up the list to stop me calling.
The second operation went as well as the first and as this was the second time going through this whole procedure it wasn’t scary at all. It was exciting and because the result was so good the first time there was never any doubt about the success of this one. For the first time in my life I had ‘normal’ vision. My friends and family watched as my confidence grew as I ‘came out’ from behind my thick glasses. I don’t know how but I had not realised the impact my low vision had made to the way I lived my life. It was a time of change!
We settled into our new life and lived in the little cottage Peter had purchased the year before. It wasn’t long before our family grew and we welcomed Caitlin in 1993 and Emily in 1994.
Having two children so close in age was a challenge and over the years we had lots of challenges and lots of fun. Because they were so close in age they liked playing the same games and similar toys. Dolls, prams and cradles were favourites. They loved playing on the swings and in the sandpit and of course made a mess whenever they could. One legendary story is the talcum powder incident when Caitlin was two and Emily one. I was doing something in the kitchen and after a while realised they were pretty quiet and went looking for them. I found them in Caitlin’s room and they were white – as was the whole room! A tin of talcum powder had been shaken all over them and the room. I didn’t know what to do - laugh or cry and decided to get the camera! We have a couple of great photos that we absolutely love of our talcum powder covered girls!
We travelled to Melbourne, Broome and Margaret River. These trips were major events and Peter got used to the amount of luggage we needed to take each time!
During a business trip to Melbourne in 1996 Peter was approached to apply for a job. It would be a great professional move for Peter and a chance for us all to experience living in a different city. The job in Melbourne didn’t eventuate but he was offered one in Canberra. We had been ready to move to Melbourne and Canberra was better – not such a big city.
The decision to leave family and friends at this particular time in our lives was not taken lightly but in the end we thought it was worth a try and if it didn’t work out we could always go back to Perth.
On August 7th 1996 our family moved to Canberra to start a new chapter of our lives.
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