Blog No. 276 – Canberra in 1970, Part 4 – 13 June 2025

My purpose is to give hope to those who have lost hope. Without hope, we remain lost in the Shadow Lands.

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If I had not successfully endured the multiple calamities that happened in Canberra, I would have never had the joy of meeting my granddaughter Evelyn nearly 40 years later.

In 1970, Evelyn’s grandmother and grandfather survived through sheer grit and a refusal to give up.

Although my brand new career as a public servant did not look at all promising, I refused to give up; my family depended on me.

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Margaret and I went to Alice Springs in December 2011.  This photo was taken on the 27th of December 2010, in Alice Springs.

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New Year’s Eve in Alice Springs – 31 December 2010.  Ann was with us and was not a fan of Kylie – so her present was a big Kylie Minogue poster.

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Ellery Creek Big Hole, near Alice Springs on the 27th of December 2010.

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[Untitled, by John Hankin] Your life here is not a sentence This is your gift. We all volunteered to come here. We all volunteered to take our turn here.  We all wanted to learn how to be eternal while dressed in a human body When your heart shatters, It is not the end. Love will always help us heal. Give Love Always

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To do the impossible, we have to keep going when “common sense” says give up.

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If you treat those around you badly, you do massive harm to yourself.

Treat others well and the universe will treat you well.

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The Wind Walker I met him in Spain. His name was David. He wasn’t in a hurry. Ambling down the track suited him just fine. I wasn’t really in a hurry But who could walk that slowly? He was instantly memorable. …. The Wind Walker was a Camino Legend because of The Dog. Her name was Tetou. She was taking him on a Camino Pilgrimage. The Pelegrino Dog with her faithful companion. She hoped the long walk would banish the clouds Anchored in the sorrow skin clinging to David. …. Tetou was big and gentle and not in a hurry. She knew slower was best. …. Are you still wandering Wind Walker? Does Tetou still nurse you through the night? Or has she succeeded? Has she brought you to the place you seek? The place of love and safety …. Don’t push the world away. For David Forder 29 October 2009

David Fordham did intimately understand one very important thing.  He knew how important it was to move on after sorrow, even if his movement was barely visible.

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My son Chris was born in the middle of 1970 in what was then called the Acton Community Hospital.  Chris struggled all night to arrive and even that was not long enough.  By 8.30 am the next day, I was exhausted and fed up with reading my idiotic paperback called The Bastard. The staff persuaded me to go home and promised to call me when it looked like Chris was about to show his head.

I got a phone call 2 hours later telling me I had a son.

Two weeks later, Genevieve was nearly dead.

The gynaecologist had messed up when using the forceps and the result was that Genevieve nearly died.

The GP who came on the Sunday, told us that the pain in Genevieve’s leg was nothing to worry about; it was only a touch of sciatica.  I had no idea what sciatica was, but I was reassured when he said the leg would quickly stop hurting.

I went to work as usual on Monday.

By Monday evening, the leg was more painful than on Sunday.  

When I returned from work on Tuesday, the leg was swollen and I knew the GP had been badly wrong.  

How was I going to get Genevieve the medical care she clearly needed?

We had no car; I could not drive her to hospital.

We had a barely two weeks old baby.  I could not leave baby Chris alone in the flat while I took Genevieve to hospital; we knew no one who could take care of him while I took Genevieve to hospital.

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I bundled clothes on the three of us and rang a taxi. 

I told the taxi to take us to Acton Community Hospital – the same hospital where Chris had been born less than two weeks earlier.

Genevieve had a blood clot in her leg and would certainly have died if I had not brought her to the hospital.

The staff took one look at Chris and insisted that he would be taken care of in the hospital with Genevieve.

Twenty four hours later, the blood clot had been turned into a massive blood blister on the leg and it had burst.

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About a year later, Genevieve was back in hospital.  The damage caused by the negligent gynaecologist had been greater than the blood clot.  The womb had been damaged and needed repair.

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By staying calm and hitting on the only plan with any chance of saving Genevieve’s life while also keeping Chris safe, I helped save Genevieve’s life and I made sure my future grandchildren could be born.

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Whatever you do, do not panic.

Add meaning to your life by acting with purpose.

By adding meaning, the solution to terrible situations becomes clear.

Whatever you do, don’t overthink things.  Just work out the basics and let the details unfold as they must.

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I will tell you more tomorrow.

Blog No. 275 – Canberra in 1970, Part 3 – 12 June 2025

My purpose is to give hope to those who have lost hope. Without hope, we remain lost in the Shadow Lands.

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If I had not successfully endured the multiple calamities that happened in Canberra, I would have never had the joy of meeting my granddaughter Evelyn nearly 40 years later.

In 1970, Evelyn’s grandmother and grandfather survived through sheer grit and a refusal to give up.

Although my brand new career as a public servant did not look at all promising, I refused to give up; my family depended on me.

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My granddaughter Evelyn was christened on the 17th of April 2010.  She was still so tiny after her premature birth.

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Another photo of Evelyn’s christening in 2010.

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Another photo of my extraordinary granddaughter Evelyn; she was one year old when this was taken.

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[Untitled, by John Hankin] Where is the box where I buried my heart? Have I buried so deep it is gone forever? Will I ever feel whole again? Will I always feel this empty inside? How do I heal my lost heart  It is shattered into tiny pieces. Will I ever see her again? There is only one quality that helps us all heal. Give Love Always

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To do the impossible, we have to keep going when “common sense” says give up.

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Go with a clear, open and receptive spirit, and the universe will not treat you badly.

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Extract from Travelling to Mykonos John Hankin (8 June 2013) The hydrofoil struts sang their melody, Sometimes a high pitched flute, Sometimes a ringing bell. At other times, they were almost an electric piano. The repetitive loop music of the struts continuously intoned its repertoire. "Ah, ah, ha, ha." "Ah, ah, ha, ha." Accompanying the hydrofoil struts were the members of the water choir. The waves smacked at the vessel as the catamaran cut across the sea. "Thump, thump, thump." The engines steadily throbbed. The television droned persistently. Passengers chattered. The body of the boat cracked as it bounced off the water. The windows were continuously streaked with salt, Blurring the outside world. A world where islands constantly paraded. Islands that were bereft of any lush green. Islands that contented themselves with streaks and patches of greenish tinges. Tinges that were mostly devoid of trees. Onwards the catamaran plunged.

Accept what is and keep moving.  Swallow events as they happen and keep moving.

Nothing else offers hope of survival.

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Australian now has a health system that guarantees payment of a major portion of all medical procedures, but Medicare only started in 1975.

Before Medicare, health treatment was a luxury.  This meant I rarely saw a doctor when I was a child.

After we got to Canberra, it dawned on me that if my child was going to be born safely, I needed to get health insurance.  Without health insurance, we would never be allowed into any hospital.

So, I decided to get health insurance.

Luckily I took my obviously pregnant wife with me when I went to get our health insurance.

Another piece of luck was that computers did not exist in 1970.

With computers everywhere, what happened that day in 1970 could not happen today.

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We turned up at the shop selling health insurance and I said I wanted health insurance because my wife was having a baby. 

The woman who served us asked if I had health insurance in Victoria and I said “no”. 

A frown crossed her face when I said neither of us had ever had health insurance.

I had no idea why she was asking me these questions

I had never heard of waiting periods for health insurance

I knew nothing about pre-existing conditions.

My family never had health insurance when I grew up

We never went to a doctor or a hospital.

The lady at the health insurance shop, frowned again for a moment and said she would backdate our insurance to a date one month before my wife had become pregnant, but warned us we would have to pay the premiums for the whole period.

It was not until we got back to our flat that I realised the significance of what she had done.  

Without the backdating, our medical bills for the childbirth would not be covered by insurance.

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Neither of us knew it then, but the health insurance lady had done us a much bigger favour that we could possibly have known that day.

Geneieve was hospitalized for two weeks within days of Chris being born and she nearly died.  She most definitely would have died if we had not had proof we could pay the medical bills to save her life.

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There were so many reasons why I should have panicked after I began living in Canberra.  If I had panicked, Genevieve would certainly have died and Chris’s welfare would have hung in the balance.

Whatever you do, do not panic.

Add meaning to your life by acting with purpose.

When you add meaning to your life, the way out of the terrible situations becomes clearer.

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I will tell you more tomorrow.

Blog No. 274 – Canberra in 1970, Part 2 – 11 June 2025

My purpose is to give hope to those who have lost hope. Without hope, we remain lost in the Shadow Lands.

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If I had not successfully endured the multiple calamities that happened in Canberra, I would have never had the joy of meeting my granddaughter Evelyn nearly 40 years later.

By 1970, Evelyn and I survived through sheer grit and a refusal to give up.

Although my brand new career as a public servant did not look at all promising, I refused to give up; my family depended on me.

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My granddaughter Evelyn was in a great hurry to be born.  She was in such a hurry that she worried the life out of my son and daughter in law because premature babies like Evelyn can easily be overcome by “events”.

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Evelyn was much stronger when this photo was taken, but she was still less than one year old.

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Another photo of my extraordinary granddaughter Evelyn; she was still less than one year old when this was taken.

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[Extract from :”Liminal Days” by John Hankin] Sometimes the walls between realities grow thin; Tremble and shudder. Then realities mix and step inside each other. Those are the days when we walk across worlds; Touch, see, talk to and physically hear the eternal. These days are the Liminal Days. The truly divine days. When we know we live in the eternal. When we the divine lives in us. Give Love Always

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To do the impossible, we have to keep going when “common sense” says we should give up.

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Go with a clear, open and receptive spirit, and the universe will not treat you badly.

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Long Time Sun – Sung by Amrit Nam Kaur May the long-time sun Shine upon you All love surround you And the pure light Within you Guide your way on Guide your way on May the long-time sun Shine upon you All love surround you And the pure light Within you Guide your way on Guide your way on May the long-time sun Shine upon you All love surround you And the pure light Within you Guide your way on Guide your way on Guide your way on Sat nam

Accept what is and keep moving.  Swallow the sh*t sandwich and keep moving.

There is nothing else that offers any hope of survival.

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To move into our newly rented flat at Campbell, we definitely needed to have a bed – but we did not have a bed and our furniture would not arrive for a t least two weeks.  The furniture removal had been arranged by the Immigration Department and my survival needs were not of any real interest to the Department.

I found a furniture store in Canberra city centre and located a double bed that would be adequate.

Unfortunately, I had no money to pay for the bed.

I asked if I could buy the bed under a then prevalent system called “hire purchase”. The legal theory behind hire-purchase was that the store lent you the money to buy what you wanted to buy and you agreed to make weekly payments at an exorbitant rate of interest.  I vaguely knew I would have to pay much more for the bed that I ought to be paying, but what other options did I have?

We could not sleep on the floor of our miserable newly rented flat.

I met a major problem when I asked about hire-purchase.

I was then aged 20 and the minimum age when the law would recognise that I was an adult and able to make a hire purchase contract was 21.

My attempt to buy the bed on hire-purchase was a failure.  I was told to come back with a signature from an adult who would guarantee I would make the payments.

One of my brand new work colleagues agreed to be a guarantor and we got the bed.

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When you are young and have zero credit history, money lenders are reluctant to lend money to you,

When you are young and have zero credit history, suppliers of basic services such as electricity are reluctant to supply you with electricity.

Somehow I scraped together the money I needed to pay the electricity company (Australian Capital Territory Electricity and Water) to let us have electricity.

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Although I was enrolled at Australian National University in three subjects, I did not get to any lectures.  We had no car so I had to walk from work and it was too far to walk and be able to get back to work in the allowed time.

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I focused on our most immediate needs.

Get furniture for the flat.

Get some health insurance.

Learn what I was supposed to be doing at work.

Try to memorise the complex maze of streets in this confusing city called Canberra.

Getting health insurance proved to be an interesting exercise.

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Terrible situations can be overcome.  Whatever you do, do not panic.

Add meaning to your life by acting with purpose.

When you add meaning to your life, the way out of the terrible situations becomes clearer.

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I will tell you more tomorrow.