Hello Andrew.
We appreciate the
way you keep us informed of our colleagues’ successes and trials over the last
45 years. And now I will make the effort to put out there what is happening
with the Peters.
Being bike riders
ourselves we were very much affected by Mark's death and we have been looking
inwards a little trying to do that impossible task of balancing risk
in our life.
We have 13
grandchildren aged 14yrs down to 15 months who all live within a 30 min drive
from us and thus are frequent house guests. I guess busy parents turn into busy
grandparents while our own children get
themselves established ...Having said that, some things are not negotiable so our Opera subscription as well as SSO and
Aussie Ballet performances make us
totally unavailable to the kids at least
once a month. The 2 hour trip from East Maitland to the Opera House is a
regular Saturday getaway.
We sold our East
Maitland General Practice to a new Dr about 6 years ago and Bob retired from
practice about 5 years ago. I am still working 2 days a week in the same “our”
practice. The new practice owners are
very good to me and offered me the world almost not to retire a few months ago
when I was planning to. So I'm still there and still quietly still enjoying
Primary Care. I do feel like a dinosaur though. The next generation practices differently,
some aspects good, some in my opinion not so good but change is part of life. I
must admit having seen the practice go through accreditation again last
week, I'm glad I'm not a principal any
more and have to run the business, computers, employment .. I'm sure things are more difficult these
days.
We are blessed with
good health so far. I recently had a
small thyroid cancer dealt with and Bob
had a bike accident 6 years ago fracturing 6 ribs in 8 places, small pneumothorax,
fractured clavicle and amnesia for the event. It was unwitnessed as I was ahead
but he probably lost traction on a slightly wet roundabout trying to catch up
with me... yes it was all my fault but he made a full recovery and was back on
the same roundabout 12 months later on the anniversary of the accident yelling out "take that you b....!" Hence our grief on hearing about Mark's
accident. There seems to be such a fine line between life and death at times.
Of medical interest
is one of our grandaughters who was born with the rare Trisomy 9 mosaic genetic
disorder. Yes, quite rare, associated with global developmental delay and
because of mosaicism she has a completely unpredictable future as no 2 kids
will be similar.. From the family point of view it is proving to be a priceless journey for all her cousins to
grow up around a disabled child and ultimately adult. At 6 years of age we are
grateful she started to walk 12 months ago and that she is very social and gets
great pleasure from being with other
children. She has a great laugh which we hear often but she is still non verbal but has a range of unofficial signing
gestures. My first hand experience with
NDIS as grandma has been extremely positive though it did take my patient with
Myotonic dystrophy 2 years and a visit to the local member to get the same
service from NDIS.!
Here is a photo of the aging Peters at the airfield at Birdsville, Qld - ready for charter over Channel Country. Bob also spends a lot of his retirement with the Maitland Musical
Society Orchestra playing the violin which he started learning at 40 and more
recently the ‘cello .
With kind regards
Terri and Robert
Peters
