Santa Claus Took Our Mother

Happening In Life.

Happening. My life has been full. Too numerous to pick one such incident which really stands out more than the other.

Fixing the foot valve on the windmill was a saga. But the words are hard to find to express my father's feelings at the time would be unprintable. Suffice to say the air turned blue. Tiny. The guy helping us to do the work let the pipe slip from the chain to fall to the bottom of the borehole.

We sat beneath the windmill for hours to try to lasso the pipe then winch it out of the mud. Then out of the ground piece by piece until all the pipe had been removed. The foot valve was replaced. The pipe then had to be lowered down the bore hole. Tiny wasn't allowed any where near the windmill workings until all was secured in place.

Or I could have explained the horror week after family members were injured in a car accident. My husband, His friend. Daughter. And son. They all went for a Saturday afternoon drive to return a guy to his place of work on the other side of the Sarina Range.

Worry began to set in when the sun fell beyond the horizon. Next came a phone call from the police asking a lot of questions. They had received a radio message from a truckie. He had reported an accident scene he'd come across on the top of the range.

The accident could have been worse than it was if my son didn't have the foresight to climb from the upturned car. He found a torch. He flagged down the semi which was the first vehicle to come along. Luckily, for everyone. Philip was the only one functioning to think. All he had received was a blood nose.

I took off to the accident scene after leaving a note for the rest of the family. The trip up. And down the range. I don't remember much about. I arrived a few seconds after the police. There were no people at the accident scene. The truckie, and Philip, had removed the other three from the car. Loaded them into the semi. Then he drove them to the ambulance station.

I finally, tracked them down at the local hospital. My husband suffered a fractured cheek bone. His friend had a couple of fractures of the neck. Nicole didn't look like her usual self. Her face was badly bruised, and swollen. Nicole was found to have her jaw broken in three places. A vein has ruptured in her head. She had to be flown to Brisbane for a few operations to stop the bleed. And repair her jaw. It was broken in three places. Everyone fully recovered over time.

Then I could have explained about my animals. I had moved to a small acreage to be able to have a couple of horses. That is all the animals I had intended to have. Within a matter of weeks, I had a lot of different animals. Fowls. Geese. Dog. Cats. And pigs. Between my father, and his friends, I seemed to end up with all the strays everyone wanted to give away.

But I decided to tell about the time my daughter, Leanne, was pregnant. Leanne, and her sister-in-law, were due to have their baby in the same week. They both wanted to name their baby, Mitchell. If either of them had a son. So the race was on to be the one to deliver their baby first.

On the eighteenth of October, Leanne, went into the hospital with pains. Didn't happen. She came home later in the day. I had been kept busy at work, and home, all day. The whole week had been busy. The pigs began to deliver their litter. Chickens, and ducklings, were hatched. The cat had her kittens.

Thursday night. Even though I went to be at a reasonable hour. I didn't have more than a few minutes sleep. I could hear Leanne, and BJ, discussing what they should do while she paced the floor. I lay in bed listening. Waiting to hear who would win the discussion.

“You can't have your mother drive you to the hospital You'll have the baby along the road.”

“No. I won't. Mum will have me there faster than the ambulance. We won't have to fill all the paperwork out. Again.”

“But. They will be there to deliver the baby. Your mother can't deliver the baby.”

“But she'll have me at the hospital for the doctor to deliver my baby.”

“Fine. Be it on your head if something goes wrong.”

A few seconds later Leanne was at the bedroom doorway.

“Mum. Are you awake?”

“Yeah.” I threw back the bed covers to get out of bed.

“I need to go to the hospital. I want you to take me.”

“Okay. Give me a moment to dress.”

Moments later. We were headed down the driveway on the forty-four kilometre drive to the hospital. Leanne rode with me. BJ followed behind in his hotted up, sporty car, thinking this would be a slow, long trip. But the trip was fast. And uneventful.

“I didn't know your mother could drive so fast,” were the words I heard when the passenger door was opened.

“I told you so.”

I waited at the hospital until the sun began to rise. I left to drive home to wake Nicole to go to work.

“Where's Leanne?”

“What do you mean. Didn't you hear all the noise?”

“No. What happened?”

“I had to drive her to the hospital. Didn't you hear the car start?”

“Didn't hear, anything. Has she had the baby?”

I drove Nicole to work. I returned home to feed the animals. Tiredness began to set in. I worked at a slow pace. I took longer than usual to feed, and clean, the animals.

I trudged slowly up the hill to the house. I headed to the bathroom to have a shower to wash away the smell from cleaning the pig”s sty.

Sleep was calling me. I made myself comfortable on the bed to catch up on many hours of lost sleep. I began to drift off when the phone rang. I prayed the ringing would stop. Hoped I was not being called in to work. On my way to the phone, I cursed the person who had invented the phone.

Moment after answering the call. I was on my way. Once again. To Mackay. “You are wanted in here,” I was told by the caller.

On arriving at the hospital. Again. I went to the desk to tell them who I wanted to see.

“So. You are the missing mother.” I nodded. “Come with me.”

I didn't know what to expect. I followed the nurse down the passage way. Where I ended my journey I didn't expect to be. I had been escorted to the delivery room. Leanne was holding back delivering until I arrived. A washer was placed in my hand to bathe Leanne's face. No one had asked me if I wanted to be in the room when my grandchild was born. Everyone seemed to take this for granted I would help. Not asking if I'd pass out on the floor.

Leanne had become a little stressed. The father was having his hand squeezed. Hard. He was being cursed. The doctor sat at the bottom of the bed waiting for the delivery of the baby. Summing up the tension in the room while doing my sponge job. I set out to cheer everyone with strange stories for encouragement.

“I don't want to do this,” came from Leanne, when another contraction came. “It hurts too much.”

“Did you hear the pigs complain while they delivered their litter? You have to deliver one, baby. The first sow had nine pigs. The second one had thirteen. They beat you on the baby stakes. So did the hens, and ducks. Even the cat has beaten you. She has her kittens. There's only you and Tammy left. You don't want to be the last one to deliver this week. Do you?” The doctor, and nurse, smiled while I told my stories. They looked at me like I was making up everything I said. “Come. You can do this. Concentrate hard. The pain will soon be over.” I soothed the fevered brow while she settled to finish the job.

I kept talking a lot of rubbish until my grandson was born. Leanne was pleased when it was all over. She had her son to be called Mitchell. I watched the proceedings. A bundle of new born baby was placed in my arms. When I could escape from the hospital, I had to travel home to collect Nicole from work.