Tuesday 16th September

A little update from Sue… Please thank everyone a million times over for everything that they have done so far. We showed Gerard some of the photos from Sunday and he mouthed the words - “Overwhelming” “Fantastic” “Thank everyone” - My lip reading has improved no end. The four of us cannot thank everyone enough. Gerard also asks me to tell everyone in the hospital about the fridge on the front doorstep. The nurses all think it is wonderful as do all of the others that I have been instructed to tell. The past 2 days have been great I guess compared to where we have come. Dr Stephen Hill (Austin Spinal Specialist) told Gerard today that he has made massive progress. The speech pathologist is impressed with how well he can control his vocal cords and can speak with good volume (he only gets 30 mins a day to try this out) and today they got him out of bed to sit in a wheelchair for about an hour and a bit. It mightn’t seem much but compared to 3 weeks ago when it looked like he wouldn’t make it, we are all pleased. I have a meeting with the doctor and the social worker next week sometime to discuss Gerard’s progress and longer term plan. There are no time frames on anything at this stage, so we are all going with the flow and enjoying any good moments that we can. A big thanks to Hugh and Helen who gave us the best present of all, 3 weeks ago and now even more with coordinating Sunday and getting a plan together for our garden/jungle. Thanks heaps to Di too for coordinating everyone and the mulch and other supplies. My thoughts when I contacted Di in the first week were that she would send out a few emails for me to let everyone know what was going on and now we are her full time job! To everyone who worked on Sunday - WOW! It’s amazing. Thanks to the cake and tea makers, the sausage and onion cookers and just everyone for being there. Also a huge thank you to all the boys for being there for Max and Zac. They really enjoyed having everyone around. I do have evidence that they all really did work in the garden!! I probably didn’t have a normal conversation with anyone, sorry. It was all totally overwhelming to see so many people here and what a fantastic job everyone did. Thank you just doesn’t seem enough. And finally to everyone who has cooked a meal or put themselves on the meal roster, I can’t thank you enough - my brain is mush and making a decision like what to have for dinner is all too much! From me….. Our Sue is an amazing woman I have to say. She is exhausted and I wish there was more we could do to ease that but as long as she sleeps well at night that’s a big thing. I, like Sue, have so many people to thank for everything that happened on Sunday. We had around 60 people working in the garden during the course of the day and had 50 cubic metres of mulch donated with another 10 to be purchased with excess money received this Friday. It was a huge effort and, despite my not pulling out many weeds (sorry), I was thrilled to meet many whom I had only had email contact with since Gerard’s accident a little over 3 weeks ago. Phil Price, owner of North East Diggers, has only recently begun this business and for him to keep the digger at the Stevenson’s all weekend was truly appreciated. A big thank you to Sue’s Mum for keeping us all under control on the day with her tried & tested tea/coffee making skills. She kept everything light on a very busy day. And finally to Hugh & Helen, the Stevenson’s neighbours who co-ordinated Sunday’s garden day in such an organised manner that every area on the block had people working in it and everyone knew what their task was. Thank you so much. Till my next update,