Introduction to the four-room ward was quick and easy with a cheerful welcome from three other patients and a friendly staff.
The first hours were spent getting to know each other.
John in bed 1 was an eighty three year old retired executive of Holden Motors. He attended boarding school in England into the war years. Coming from a prominent engineering family he worked in a Vauxhall factory. His education was academic with an emphasis on Greek, Latin and English. When general Motors started manufacturing Holden in Australia his expertise was needed and he transferred to live in Brighton, Melbourne. I found him to be a much travelled and knowledgeable man. His affliction was bone cancer, with deterioration at his neck, which necessitated the fitting of metal nuts and bolts to steady his head. He was very lucky not to have become a paraplegic.
In bed 2 was a younger man in his late forties, early fifties. An accountant, Bob had rectal and liver cancer, and diabetes. That did not stop him from joining in our social exchanges of views on life. He is still in the working part of his life with responsibility towards supporting and educating family.
A veteran from World War Two occupied bed 4. A VeteranŐs Affairs driver drove him down from Sale. He also was an accountant, and the same age as me. His service was as a wireless air gunner in the air force. His cancer attacked his muscles. He was a quiet man, more of a listener than a talker.
A most interesting newcomer to the ward occupied the last bed, bed 3. He was an accountant and an international businessman. His second wife, a much younger chines lady from Penang, visited him and helped to charm the ward. This patient had a very rare form of cancer. The treatment had been very expensive for him until he finally qualified for the benefits. He has travelled and worked in China for many years and speaks a number of Chinese languages. This skill livened up our ward because the ladies who clean the wards, make the beds and deliver meals are of many different ethnic backgrounds including Chinese. Max was able to talk to many of the Chinese hospital staff members in their own languages when they couldnŐt speak to each other except in English. There were Asian workers from Laos, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. Some of the workers had very high qualifications in their own countries that are not recognised here.
When Max left the hospital, a new patient, Phil arrived. As an Englishman from Plymouth he was called up for two years National Service and was trained as a jet fighter pilot. He was then snapped up by a commercial airline and spent his working life as a pilot of Comet planes, visiting countries worldwide. He had had a brain tumour removed and was also in the process of having chemotherapy.
So there we were, men of comparable ages sharing our life stories, our beliefs and philosophies and on balance I reckon I havenŐt done too badly.