Hi Andrew,
Firstly
thank you for your tireless efforts organising reunions and keeping us updated
about one another. Seems like yesterday that we were sent to measure a rusty
old statue near Fisher Library, yet that now was over fifty years ago!
We
have reached a stage where that sometimes means less than good news.
Two
more recent departures - Allan and now Jonathan. Further poignant reminders of
our own mortality.
I
first became acutely aware of this feeling of mortality on hearing of the death
of Jane Talbot, over ten years ago. She was a bubbly, happy person, and due to
our alphabetical proximity, we were frequently together in prac classes,
dissection room, and of course, my neighbour in many exams. Always looking
around and wishing me well. She was an integral part of my memories of those
early preclinical years , and I personally found the sad news of her demise
particularly confronting.
My
life has been eventful over the past few years. Lots of downs and ups. In 2017
Leonie, my lovely wife of twenty six years, developed a persistent cough, which
led to a diagnosis of Stage IV lung cancer. This despite being a “never
smoker”, and a prognosis of two years - two pretty bad years - proved to be
accurate. Our then teenage children, Ben and Tash, turned out to be my
salvation, as only weeks after her death I had to organise an eighteenth
birthday party for Tash, get them both through this terrible time, and then get
them motivated for university exams and the HSC respectively. No time for
despair or introversion. My older children, Nick and Charlotte, from my first
marriage, were also a great help…
I
returned to my work as an anaesthetist after Leonie’s death - by now solely in
private practice - to slowly “retire by stealth”, as my surgeons’ operating
lists grew shorter, and they gradually retired one by one. I now only work a
few fortnightly sessions with ophthalmologists and skin cancer surgeons
providing sedation, blocks and local anaesthetia. And even that may not be for
much longer….
Health
wise I have had some challenges of my own. An asymptomatic, but chronically
slow pulse (Wenckebach, at one point!) eventually necessitated a pacemaker. You
never want to hear your cardiologist say “I wish my students were here!” (The
pacemaker decision was forced on me by my wimpy anaesthetist colleagues. I
needed some procedures due to a steadily rising PSA, and a kidney stone, and
none were prepared to give me an anaesthetic with a pulse in the low
thirties!). 🤷♂️ I also needed an MRI, and it’s
tricky getting one when you have a pacemaker, but not impossible. Just very
difficult to organise, cause no one wants to take you on! In stepped celebrated
radiologist colleague and best man Garvin Williamsz (see later) who came to the
rescue and organised it for me. TYSM, mate! Biopsy was unfortunately positive,
- but the capsule intact - and I elected for radiotherapy, as I have spent enough time in operating theatres over the last forty years!
So far so good…
In
late 2020, I had the amazing good fortune to randomly reconnect with beautiful
Judith, a friend from many years past - way back when we were both married to
our respective first spouses. We had not seen each other for twenty years, but
text messages became coffee, which became dinner and unexpectedly love and
sunshine returned to my life, culminating in our wedding in April last year.
Marital bliss has seen me return to Sydney after a mere forty seven years. We
now share a
new life of long postponed travel, theatre, restaurants, comedy, celebrity
speakers, learning - for me - to enjoy grandchildren (hers, not mine!), and
concerts (rock, not opera - sorry Andrew, although I did have a recent baptism
of opera in Lucca, Italy. It was the birthplace of Puccini, after all!).
Travel
started last year, with a long trip to the UK, France, Switzerland, Italy,
Finland and Estonia - and we intend to do lots more before our fitness and the
ability to get travel insurance cut out!
My
life has turned full circle, and the future is now looking very exciting!
Good
luck and good health to you and all the class of ‘78
Jeff Taylor
