Waiting for Veronica

I first met my husband Tim in August 1977. He’d just celebrated his 21^st a couple of months before and I was only 19. We started going out and later moved in together in his brother, Richard’s house in Rostrevor, Adelaide. Richard had a job working in Darwin and lived there with his wife Cecelia and daughters Samantha, Leesa and Vivienne. By 1979 when we were getting married Richard and Cecelia had four girls and he brought Vivienne with him from Darwin for our ceremony. She was the most gorgeous two year old and was her daddy’s little girl. Cecelia stayed in Darwin with the two older girls and baby Rachel.

I loved it when we spent time with the girls whenever they visited their Nana, Tim’s mum: Evelyn. Eventually they moved back to Adelaide for good and we moved to the Riverland to be near my family for a while. Soon we were back in Adelaide and I loved every visit with the children. They were our nieces and Tim and I loved being with them every chance we had. We had our gorgeous German shepherd dog called Kaiser and he loved the girls as much as we did. When Nana Evelyn and the children visited us at our home in Largs North we all enjoyed going for walks to the beach and going swimming together. Nana loved catching the train from the city to our rented home which was only two blocks from the beach.

Kaiser loved the beach and his favourite past –time was chasing the seagulls and running through the water. All we had to do was pick up the keys and say “beach” and he’d get so excited, ready to go!. One day when we all went to the beach Kaiser was running around like an old mother hen, keeping everybody “rounded up” and safe from danger. When Samantha and Leesa got in a little too deep he would shepherd them back to the shallower water. He even gently grabbed Samantha by the arm and got her to come closer to shore.  They weren’t really in too deep; it was just too deep in his opinion! Once he even wanted to “save” a swimmer who was swimming along the beach a fair way out from the shore. He was really getting distressed and was about to go and “save” the swimmer when I held him back and said “No Kaiser: he doesn’t want to be saved!”

Richard and Cecelia’s son Mark Andrew was about two when we visited Nana Evelyn one day and Marky answered the door and said “Me fall down, hurt eye, doctor!” pointing to the two stitches in his eyebrow. Samantha, 10: Leesa 8, Vivienne 7, Rachel 5 and Mark Andrew 3, visited us during the school holidays and we were like one big happy family as I really enjoyed having them stay with us and we all played Monopoly together.

I don’t recall exactly when I found out that Richard had been married before and had another daughter called Veronica with his first wife Lynette Anne Tredrea. Richard never talked about it but Nana Evelyn told me how much she missed not getting to know her other grand-daughter.

Tim and I went on to have three children of our own: Vanessa, Shelley and Michael. We had our daughter Vanessa in 1985 when Kaiser was already a little older. Everyone warned us to be careful because Kaiser would get jealous and hurt the baby but that never happened! Kaiser loved Vanessa so much that no-one could get close enough to hurt her. One day a Rena Ware salesman came to our place when Vanessa was a few months old. She was sitting on my lap playing with her rattle and when she dropped it the salesman picked it up. Kaiser was sitting quietly next to me and when the guy sat up again and wanted to pass the rattle back to Vanessa he couldn’t because there was Kaiser: right in front of s face with a low growl and a look that said “don’t you even think about it pal!” He just sat back very slowly and passed the rattle to me and I gave it back to Vanessa.

During Vanessa’s first winter, Richard came to help my dad Sandor and husband Tim install a wood heater for the little house when Vanessa was still only a few months old. Vanessa needed a nappy change so I went into our bedroom to change her. Vivienne followed and wanted to help me look after he new little cousin. Kaiser came too as he followed us everywhere we went. He was a good body guard. He jumped up onto the bed when Vivienne go too close and scared her a little because he was being too good a guard dog!

One day, Tim was having a bath when he called out for me to quickly come into the bath room. I raced in and there was Tim with a huge smile on his face. He explained that when he’d ducked his head under water, Kaiser must have thought he was drowning because he stuck his nose deep into the water and pulled Tim to safety! Tim demonstrated it all over again as I just watched in amazement as Kaiser got more and more agitated until he finally plunged his face into the water up to his eyes and pulled Tim to safety! After a couple more times of repeat rescues, Kaiser finally walked out of the bathroom in disgust because he realised that we were just teasing him! Smart boy!

Kaiser had always had a fear of water because he used to cringe when we would take him for a walk and had to cross a small bridge over a running creek. He was always a pain when we swam in the small backyard pool at Rostrevor because he would jump in to save us and would end up scratching us with his claws as he tried to grab us to pull us to safety. We had to order him to swim away from us and get out of the pool and then he would run up and down the pool barking at us till we finished swimming!

Whenever we swam in the pool the back door neighbour’s kids would look over the fence at us with imploring eyes: begging us to invite them in! We occasionally did invite them in and soon we’d see them standing there in their bathers after school, waiting patiently for that little nod from us that would make then grin from ear to ear!

One day at the beach I was using Tim’s goggles and snorkel to chase a small school of fish in the shallows.  All of a sudden I was pushed under water by Kaiser jumping on me trying to join in on my obviously interesting play! Spluttering and choking I sat up with him licking me in the face to see if I was all right!

Another time we were with a group of friends at a larger creek and there was a rope hanging out over the water. After seeing someone else swinging out and jumping into the water I decided to do the same. I swung out over the water and let go: falling into that deep water with a splash. As I got to the surface there was Kaiser frantically thrashing about trying to find and save me! I got a couple of scratches before I managed to send him off and climb out by myself, laughing and crying at the same time. He must have been really worried to jump into that deep water to come and get me out! He was so precious!

Kaiser loved Vanessa so much that he even let her sit on his back like a pony, especially if she had Yoyo biscuits or Twisties to share with him. They would sit there and eat their treats together for quite a while as we watched them enjoying each other’s company. We would visit Richard and Cecelia’s place and the kids would run screaming to the gate yelling “Uncle Tim! Auntie Sue!” It was so wonderful to be welcomed so loudly! Kaiser would join them as we went across to the primary school playground across from their home to play on the swings and climbing frames. Those were the days when I was happy to take care of the kids and let Tim catch up with his brother and sister-in-law in peace and quiet. The kids weren’t allowed to go anywhere without supervision and their mum and dad were too tired from work to take them.

I was in my element as I loved to be the one to take them on little walks to the shop and park for some fun. Thank you for all the fun we had together!

When Vanessa was 2 ½ in 1987 we moved to the countryside to raise her in the fresh air and smog free environment. Sedan is a little town about 30 minutes from the Barossa Valley and we bought a little old farm house that needed a lot of work! Kaiser loved the space of the countryside and so did Vanessa. Kaiser was getting old and slowing down a lot by the time we’d been there a couple of years. He was over eleven when passed away. We were so sad to lose our beautiful boy but a week later we found out we were having another baby and Shelley came along in June 1989. Nearly six years later we had our son Michael in 1995 and our family was complete.

Today Vanessa has a beautiful little two year old boy called Santiago with her partner Humberto: Shelley is engaged to Josh: Michael is 15. Nana Evelyn (aged 93) is back in Lourdes valley Nursing Home at Myrtlebank after a lengthy stay in the Royal Adelaide Hospital from a bout of pneumonia and after visiting her yesterday: 1^st May, we don’t know how much longer we have with her. I know she’s tired and as we told her a few weeks ago: if she’s had enough, we will miss her but we don’t want to see her in pain any more. My prayer is for us to find Veronica so that she can see her one more time before

The Lord takes her to her long deserved rest.

Today is the 27^th of April 2014 and Nana has been gone for nearly 4 years.

Veronica is out there somewhere and God willing: one day I will be able to tell her how much her Nana Evelyn loved her!