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Thursday, August 24, 2000
grandma in hospital - 08:50 PM
my mum just called me. my grandma (her mum) was recently diagnosed with lymphoma. it's a form of cancer. just today though, she's been admitted to hospital & has been further diagnosed with five more tumours & an aggressive form of leukaemia. i'm coping okay, i'm more worried about the people around my grandma & how they're feeling, like my mum & her sisters & brother (grandma's daughters & son), & raymond, grandma's boyfriend. let me tell you about raymond & grandma, it's a long story with a lot of history behind it.
my grandma was born in germany & lived there for most of her life. she was there during & after the war. raymond was, at the time, a young belgian soldier, taken as a prisoner of war & sent to work on the farm that grandma lived on. she was just sixteen at the time, he was about twenty-one. he was besotted with her from the moment he saw her & they got to know each other. back home though, he was already engaged to be married so after becoming firm friends he returned home to his sweetheart. they kept in touch for many, many years while each had their own family & lived their separate lives.
grandma moved with her family to australia around 1956. shortly after the move grandma & grandpa were no longer together (he & my nanna, i guess you could call her my step-nanna, got together & had more children. they were together until grandpa died around 1990) so grandma eventually went to live on her own in a block of units.
none of the family had ever heard of raymond at this point, so when one day we hear from one of the cousins that "grandma has a boyfriend!" we were all very surprised. she & raymond had stayed friends for all those years so when his wife died a few years ago, they were both sad & perhaps grandma provided some comfort. grandma has always been very energetic & has travelled a lot so she & raymond started doing some travelling together. when we (the family) finally got to meet raymond we were all very taken by his charm. he speaks french & german only, no english, but this didn't seem to hinder those of us who only speak english from getting to know & like him.
raymond adores grandma. he looks at her like she's the most beautiful creature he's ever laid eyes on. at the moment, because of visa issues, he's in belgium, away from grandma. from what i hear, he's desperately trying to get back here to be with grandma. i hope he makes it in time.
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