Look Who's in the Paper

Time is flying past and Gerard has now been at Clarendon Street for 4 weeks already.

So far so good in his new home. He has enjoyed visits from Barb and Frank, Bill, Deb and Pete and of course, Max and Zac and his Warrandyte mates. It is so much more relaxed and he is sleeping for much longer (most nights) than he did at 3 North. It is VERY quiet. He is also enjoying the food (they will cook what he wants when he wants it) and we are taking off whenever we can. We are regulars at Coles in Ivanhoe, Northland, The Good Guys, Harvey Norman, Officeworks and today we hit the café in Fairfield. Last week he came home to Warrandyte 3 times.

We wanted to say congratulations and thank you to the 10 people who have been “trained up” to look after Gerard while he is out and about. We both really appreciate it and Jack the senior physio who did the training said they were all great. She is also very impressed that there were 10. Many families struggle to get one!

Thanks to Di and Susie who went solo and picked Gerard up to take him to Max and Zac’s Basketball Grand Final a few weeks ago. And to Stuart, Belinda and Di who looked after Gerard during the game and took him home- all without any help from me. Awesome effort as the first time getting him into and out of the van and doing trachy suctions is pretty scary!

We are getting out and about. We went to Yum Cha with Deb and Pete, lunch at Shoppingtown with Pete. Gerard and myself did a trip to the Good Guys and Harvey Norman in Preston and then a trip home for Father’s day. There will be many more outings to come! Look out volunteers! Gerard has lots more outings in the pipeline.

Last email, I forgot to attach the latest article about our Gerard that appeared in the Diamond Valley Leader newspaper, so here it is.

We have cleaned off the deck at home as it will be pulled down within the next week or so, ready for the new one to be built (The council said yes to our plans so it is full steam ahead) We will be on the lookout shortly for helpers to move the rubbish to the skips!

Enjoy the sunshine and if you are over Thornbury way, let us know. Gerard would love to see you at Clarendon Street. Otherwise, if you have a chance, you can email him at

todaysschoolsmelbourne@gmail.com